Minneapolis wireless internet network

while working in the field, prior to the implementation of the wireless network. At the time when the wireless network was under consideration, various other American cities already had such networks or were in the process of constructing them. Chaska and Moorhead, both in Minnesota, had city-owned and -operated wireless networks, while Philadelphia was considering building its own and Corpus Christi, Texas, was experimenting with a specialized government-use-only network. Before the network was built, Minneapolis's city services were run on a combination of fiber optics and other services, with city inspectors, who worked throughout the city, using Sprint Cellular while working in the field. ==History==

The initiative to construct a citywide wireless internet network, initiated in 2003 by city councilmember Gary Schiff, Bridging the digital divide in the city was also a stated goal for the network. Several ownership schemes were considered in the process of building and running the system. One plan, which named city officials as the owners and operators of the network, was scrapped because the city lacked the core competency to do it on its own, as well as the $25–30 million capital investment required for the initial construction. USI Wireless, a wholly owned subsidiary of US Internet, US Internet also provides wired fiber optic connections that were available, as of April 2014, to around 12,600 residents of Minneapolis. Connections ran as quickly as 1Gbit/s for $99 per month, about half the price of a 25 Mbit/s connection from Comcast. Later that year, the company announced plans to bring its internet services farther afield to the broader Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area and nationally. US Internet announced in December of the same year that it would bring 10 Gbit/s service to Minneapolis making it the first municipality in the world to have access at that speed. ==Availability and usage==

Minneapolis was intended to be covered in its entirety by the wireless network, with certain exceptions (such as the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden, which lacked the infrastructure to support such a system). The goal was to blanket the entire city with the network by November 2007 and in spite of delays, USI Wireless expected that the next area for installation, a residential neighborhood, would be easier thanks to its flat terrain. A further delay in 2008 came in the form of light poles that were breaking under the stress of the wireless transmitters being placed upon them in neighborhoods in the Calhoun-Isles area of the city. In response, the city paid $1 million to install new light poles in the area that would be capable of supporting the transmitters. In 2006, when US Internet was selected to construct the network, plans existed for the wireless service to be available to residents for a subscription of $19.95 per month, for speeds of one to three megabits per second, which were comparable to the speeds being offered by other internet service providers in the area at the time but at half the cost. . It was not until the collapse of the I-35W Mississippi River bridge on August 1, 2007, however, that this application of the network was truly tested. ==Reception==

In a report on municipal wireless networks by The Wall Street Journal, Minneapolis's was singled out as being "a success story", with the publication explaining that the concept of having the city as the anchor tenant was a good one. The article cited the wireless network in Philadelphia that was being set up around the same time that Minneapolis's was, but was being run and built by EarthLink, the other finalist in the bidding process to select a network for Minneapolis. A 2009 article in Computerworld noted that "Minneapolis is one of the few large cities that has deployed Wi-Fi successfully." The wireless network was tested in December 2007 by wireless testing firm Novarum, and was found to be the fastest metro wireless internet network in America. The network received the W2i Digital Cities Wireless Communities Best Practices Award in 2007. ==References==