Vendors eye Denver for citywide Wi-Fi grid

Jeff Smith, Rocky Mountain News

Published September 28, 2006 at midnight

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Private vendors have approached Denver officials about the possibility of building a citywide Wi-Fi network for residential and business customers.

Also, 10 municipalities west of Denver have banded together to see if they can attract similar interest from a private company.

The developments are the latest local twist in the municipal broadband wave sweeping the country. Up Interstate 70, CenturyTel is building a ubiquitous high-speed wireless network in Vail.

Qwest, one of the dominant Internet service providers in the region, attempted to cut the trend off at the pass with legislation in Colorado in 2005. But the resulting law, watered down from the original bill, merely prevents municipalities from spending tax dollars to build telecommunications networks without voter approval.

The newest plans would not appear to bump up against that law. Instead, they envision a private vendor footing the entire bill and keeping customer revenues, while the municipalities would aid in providing access to the infrastructure needed to build the networks.

Darryn Zuehlke, the city of Denver's telecommunications director, on Wednesday characterized a Wi-Fi network as being in preliminary discussions.

"There have been a few wireless providers that have approached the city to create a network for use by businesses and residences," Zuehlke said. But he said no formal offers have been made, and he couldn't disclose the names of interested providers.

West of Denver, officials in Arvada and Boulder are spearheading an effort to attract a wireless network builder and operator that would cover a larger swath of geography. Other cities involved in that effort include Broomfield, Golden, Lakewood, Louisville, Northglenn, Thornton, Superior and Wheat Ridge.

Broomfield, for example, looked into the feasibility of its own Wi-Fi network but concluded the community would be too small to attract a provider on its own.

"Major providers are going to huge cities like Philadelphia," said Tonya Haas, assistant city and county manager. Or providers are attracted to serving a bigger region "where they don't have to go city to city" for approval, she said. That's the kind of region the west metro Denver consortium hopes to create.

The municipal broadband networks, if they get built, are likely to put more competitive pressures on Qwest and Comcast.

Qwest already is seeing some of its largest markets, such as Portland, Ore., and Minneapolis, support the construction of high- speed wireless networks.

Such networks are expected to offer high-speed Internet services at $20 a month to residential customers at a speed of 1 megabit a second, about 18 times faster than standard dial-up service.

Qwest and Comcast, by comparison, offer faster speeds, which more easily enable customers to download big files such as video. But prices are higher.

Qwest didn't respond directly to the potential competitive threat of municipal Wi-Fi along the Front Range.

Qwest spokesman Michael Dunne instead stressed that the company's focus is on expanding the availability of its high-speed Internet services, "which are now available to roughly 80 percent of households, up from 67 percent in 2004."

He also noted Qwest has an indoor modem that enables its high-speed customers to easily set up wireless networks in their homes.

smithje@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5155

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