WiFi, New Cell Tower for Grove?
A joint meeting of the city council, GMSA, and Grove Industrial Development Authority heard presentations on a new cell tower, cellular service, and wireless high speed internet at a special session Friday.
City officials heard from Trevor Langham, Tulsa Metronet and provider of WiFi service, on technology that is less than two years old. Up to 100 radio units would be installed with each unit talking to another unit up to two miles away. Up to 50 sessions per antenna at a time could be handled with the new equipment, with radios being mounted on PSO and REC poles, as well as the new cell tower to be built. Suggested cost to consumers would be $29.95/month for broadband service at a speed of 1.5kbps up, 760kbps down, or eight times the speed of a T-1 line, Langham said. Total cost of a 100 unit system would be about a half million dollars and could be built in 60-90 days and would pay for itself in a year and a half assuming 900 users, Langham said.
Langham said the Grove area has a density of 570 persons per square mile and only 38% of internet users currently have broadband service, with 61% using narrow band service. He said his system would not provide for HDTV service initially.
City Manager Bill Galletly said the staff has been working to bring automated water meter reading service to GMSA and Grove, and the wi-fi, and new tower would solve three problems at once.
Peter Kavanagh of Verizon Communications in Dallas made a presentation on providing new cell phone service, with Verizon building and paying for a new 280-foot tower at the top of the hill near the water tower south of the Grove Grade School building. Verizon would build it, maintain it, and provide the city with free space for its own transmitters, with up to 3 other cell phone or wi-fi companies renting tower space. The city would get 80% of the rental fees, Verizon would get 20% and Verizon would pay nothing for its own cell facilities.
Bill Taylor of Didicom LLC in Ft. Smith said his company has built 150-200 towers in the area and could build the tower "naked" with the city renting space to users. He said his company is strictly in the tower business.
Troy Kyman, owner of Precision Communications, said his company is located in Grove and is in the tower construction business and would like an opportunity to get involved.
Verizon has been ordered to pay $560,000 in fines to Oklahoma by March 31 for its failure to fulfill an agreement to create 160 jobs in the state in 2005; Verizon paid $280,000 last year for its failure to create 160 jobs in 2004.
All three Grove governmental bodies passed motions, unanimously, to authorize the city to advertise for proposals within 10 days, to "get the best deal in writing."
City officials heard from Trevor Langham, Tulsa Metronet and provider of WiFi service, on technology that is less than two years old. Up to 100 radio units would be installed with each unit talking to another unit up to two miles away. Up to 50 sessions per antenna at a time could be handled with the new equipment, with radios being mounted on PSO and REC poles, as well as the new cell tower to be built. Suggested cost to consumers would be $29.95/month for broadband service at a speed of 1.5kbps up, 760kbps down, or eight times the speed of a T-1 line, Langham said. Total cost of a 100 unit system would be about a half million dollars and could be built in 60-90 days and would pay for itself in a year and a half assuming 900 users, Langham said.
Langham said the Grove area has a density of 570 persons per square mile and only 38% of internet users currently have broadband service, with 61% using narrow band service. He said his system would not provide for HDTV service initially.
City Manager Bill Galletly said the staff has been working to bring automated water meter reading service to GMSA and Grove, and the wi-fi, and new tower would solve three problems at once.
Peter Kavanagh of Verizon Communications in Dallas made a presentation on providing new cell phone service, with Verizon building and paying for a new 280-foot tower at the top of the hill near the water tower south of the Grove Grade School building. Verizon would build it, maintain it, and provide the city with free space for its own transmitters, with up to 3 other cell phone or wi-fi companies renting tower space. The city would get 80% of the rental fees, Verizon would get 20% and Verizon would pay nothing for its own cell facilities.
Bill Taylor of Didicom LLC in Ft. Smith said his company has built 150-200 towers in the area and could build the tower "naked" with the city renting space to users. He said his company is strictly in the tower business.
Troy Kyman, owner of Precision Communications, said his company is located in Grove and is in the tower construction business and would like an opportunity to get involved.
Verizon has been ordered to pay $560,000 in fines to Oklahoma by March 31 for its failure to fulfill an agreement to create 160 jobs in the state in 2005; Verizon paid $280,000 last year for its failure to create 160 jobs in 2004.
All three Grove governmental bodies passed motions, unanimously, to authorize the city to advertise for proposals within 10 days, to "get the best deal in writing."
posted by Editor | 1:32 AM
1 Comments:
$30/month is a much cheaper price than I am paying now and the use of existing poles is a great idea. With the noise in the phone lines and rural areas not having access to DSL, the only high speed alternative so far has been satellite at a cost of $50-$70/month. While I'm greatful that Java Dave's allows wi-fi access at their coffee shop they, unfortunately, are not open 24 hours...
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