“MTN, Comcast, USI Wireless and Minneapolis”
I was going to post something on the topic, but I didn’t get to it and Aaron Landry has a fantastic write up with lots of links.
There’s a lot of discussion about Minneapolis’ 2008 Recommended Budget that will cut an additional $100,000 out of MTN’s operating budget. This recommendation by the mayor is pretty nasty considering that $50,000 was already cut from MTN’s budget but more importantly, this $100,000 cut is intended to fund a “Wireless Portals Project” run by USI Wireless.
How I see it, the issue is that MTN is an independent non-profit that centers itself around encouraging creation of and access to programs and information. They’re not in the cable or internet service provider business. For over twenty years, they have been Minneapolis’ primary conduit for citizen media. On the contrary, USI Wireless and Comcast are for-profit service providers. Why take money away from the partially city-funded organization that’s suited for creating the content for the community and giving it to an organization that’s a provider of not content but connectivity?
Lots more information there, so do click through.
I know the primary purpose of the network is to provide communication services for city workers. The next most important thing is to help bridge the digital divide for disenfranchised citizens.
The Wireless Portals part of the project is extremely important. It encourages everyone to be more engaged with what goes on at the neighborhood and city level. These are the issues that have the most impact on your daily existence. It serves both people who are new to the internet and people who just want cheap, convenient internet access by plopping that information in front of people every single time they get on.
It’s a shame that the budget for the muni wifi project wasn’t managed to accommodate the Wireless Portal program without having to resort to robbing Peter to pay Paul.
UPDATE: Great statement from Peter Fleck (emphasis mine):
Catherine Settanni posts at the Mpls issues forum. She is under contract with the City of Minneapolis and working on the community portals. She states that city residents see a “critical need for local, community-based Internet content to be made available via the USI Wireless Minneapolis network.” I have no reason to doubt that but I don’t think residents were ever asked if they see that need as so important that we should dismantle the current system for producint local, community-based content: MTN and public access cable.
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I purchased the roaming wireless plan cause I well “roam” a bit and I have a laptop.
Not impressed.
You have to sign in everytime. The popup window shows traffic even though its unlimited. It routinely drops and then the stupid USI wireless page steps into your browsing like a schoolyard bully, interupting your attention and distracting your train of thought.
They have been performing “emergency” maintenance every other day now…I hope that they can get teh damn kinks ironed out soon.
Yeah, all the intended usage issues aside, you would hope they could get the basic functionality down.
I hear a lot of people say the same about the quality of service and as annoying as it is, it seems like a lot of people are hanging in there with it or are willing to give it a try again in the future when it’s more stable. Which is a really good thing.
I left out a bunch of stuff on the post on my site, such as the technical failures that USI Wireless has had. Ryanol, as I’m sure you know, you’re probably in the majority of Minneapolis wireless subscribers in terms of having similar experiences.
I, too, am having issues with USI, but for the moment I’m not complaining. It’s a hell of a lot cheaper than Comcast. I figure that it’ll get better before it gets worse. I can only hope that it’ll get better sooner rather than later, though.