Longmont building wireless network as Boulder Wi-Fi group readies RFP

BOULDER – Now that Longmont’s city council approved citywide Wi-Fi, can Boulder be far behind?
It’s not far behind at all, according to Chris Puccio, director of information technology for the city of Boulder.

In August, Longmont approved a deal with Bethesda, Md.-based MobilePro Corp. to build a citywide wireless network. The private company will spend about $2 million to get the network up and running, and no public funds will be used.

Puccio’s plan to cover Boulder with Wi-Fi is moving along briskly, he said.

On July 18 he presented the topic to city council and received unanimous acceptance to send out a request for proposals. Puccio hopes to have the request for proposal out by Nov. 1 followed by a 60-day response period. “We would love to have it out earlier. We’re pushing like crazy to hit that date,” he said.

Important to Puccio’s plan is including other cities in the project. He’s forming a group called Colorado Wireless Community, which includes what he calls “five core cities”: Boulder, Arvada, Broomfield, Lakewood and Thornton.

He’s also talking with Superior, Louisville and Lafayette to be part of the RFP process. Superior has “verbally committed,” and Layette has tentatively agreed, he said.

Puccio also thinks other area municipalities – Wheat Ridge, Golden, Federal Heights, Northglenn and Littleton – might be interested in joining the project.

Organizing with other cities is important to potential bidders because there’s power in numbers, Puccio said. “We’ve talked about Brighton and Erie. But we’re trying to balance population density so it remains attractive for companies to bid on.”

Companies like MobilePro and EarthLink, which is building Wi-Fi networks for San Francisco and Philadelphia, are likely to bid, Puccio said. “It would be wonderful if Qwest and Comcast stepped up,” he said.
Civitium LLC, an Alpharetta, Ga. consultancy that specializes in building “digital communities” – cities, towns, villages and boroughs using broadband technology to promote social and economic development – helped Puccio put together the feasibility plan presented to city council. The company is helping write the RFP, Puccio said.

Puccio estimated the city has spent about $20,000 to $25,000 with Civitium to get to this point.

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