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Colo. cities not giving up on wireless

Network on go despite failures in other states

Jeff Smith, Rocky Mountain News

Published August 30, 2007 at midnight

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Ten Front Range municipalities are plowing ahead with a wireless Internet project at a time when similar projects in other cities are failing or floundering.

"Certainly, (the problems elsewhere) are something we've watched and talked about internally," said Clark Johnson, assistant Arvada city manager and president of Colorado Wireless Communities.

But Johnson said the group thinks its 137-square-mile project can succeed, partly because the network will be built by a leading equipment maker and won't rely only on Internet services.

The group this week signed a letter of intent with Boulder-based C-Com Affinity Telecom to develop the network with partner BelAir Networks, a Toronto equipment maker. The network's goal is to provide affordable communications services to residents, businesses and others in Arvada, Boulder, Broomfield, Golden, Lakewood, Louisville, Northglenn, Superior, Thornton and Wheat Ridge.

Johnson stressed that while the municipalities plan to support the project, they aren't going to "dump a bunch of tax dollars into (operating) the network."

Chicago, citing increased costs and private competition, this week canceled its plan to build a wireless network in part to reach poor neighborhoods. A wireless project in Houston also is in doubt because vendor EarthLink is retrenching.

"I think the bloom is off the rose," said Donna Jaegers, a telecommunications analyst at Janco Partners in Greenwood Village.

Johnson, of Arvada, said it's "clear most networks can't survive on only offering data services." That's why he likes C-Com's plan to also offer inexpensive telephone services.

He called BelAir the "Cadillac" of the industry, with networks in London and Minneapolis, Minn., among its credits. He said some board members visited Minneapolis and were impressed.

"A lot of smaller and medium-sized projects are really starting to see success," Johnson said