Wow. I have an empty house sitting in a neighborhood in St. Louis Park, Minnesota that’s supposed to be blanketed with solar-powered municipal Wi-Fi Internet access. The ugly brown poles were placed on just about every corner and never really worked correctly from the get-go. Well it seems like the city is fed up with its contractor, Arnic.
“We’re going to tell Arinc, ‘Come get your poles, take them out of the ground, stick them someplace where the solar panels won’t work at all,’” St. Louis Park Mayor Jeff Jacobs said. The feud between the city and Arnic has “sickened” members of the city council and Jacobs’ staff. Total losses are expected to eclipse $1 million.
According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune,
“In testing what Arinc had built, the city found that small portions of the network functioned well, providing a high-speed connection. But in other areas, the solar panels were placed in spots where they did not get enough light to power the radios’ batteries.
The idea of using solar power was Arinc’s, and it was one reason the company said it could offer the lowest bid to build the city’s network. Its proposal — at $1.7 million — was $700,000 less than the next lowest bidder, in part because most Wi-Fi networks rely on electrical poles, and renting that space and power is expensive.”
The city is now deciding whether to start over with a different contractor or give up on the project altogether. Doing so could run expenses into the $3 million range, so the city may sue Arnic for some of the losses.
Oh and if someone would be kind enough to buy my house, I’d really appreciate it. I’m out here in Boston and the double bills each month are really starting to sting.
Solar Wi-Fi service won’t see light of day [Star Tribune]
I have to look at one of those poles everyday as I look north from my driveway. Good news is the pole is stuck in my neighbor’s yard and not mine.. She has dogs that bark until 1am everyday. What goes around, comes around…
They are ugly beasts. Originally they were going to be colored brown or green at one time. I can’t imagine why anyone thought that solar power for WiFi would be a good idea in Minnesota, in an urban area, with lots of trees, and 2.3 hours of sunlight in January.
But I live on the good side of France avenue - that being in Minneapolis and not St. Louis Park. At least in Minneapolis the municipal WiFi network being built is on preexisting light and power polls where it gets its electrical and you barely notice the antenna. I just noticed the network being lit up in my neighborhood the past week. So instead of 7 WiFi networks I can reach, I now have 8.
Since they seem to like risky ideas I have a better one. Let cars power the internet… Remember those rubber tubes that used to cross the road to act as counters for traffic. Make a slightly bigger one with a fluid in it to power a micro turbine to generate power. For sure we cannot predict the availability of the sun but without any need for calculations we can predict that there will always be too much traffic….
Just a thought….
My other email….. crr_gm@eim.ae…. living in a VERY sunny country 24×7x360…maybe they would like to make an offer here?
Bad time to try and sell a house with the market like it is. What are you doing in Boston? I thought CrunchGear was West Coast?
Yeah, tell me about it. It’s a terrible time. My wife’s from Boston and she wanted to move back. She’s a teacher so we had to move before school started. CrunchGear is currently made of two writers in Seattle, three in New York, and me in Boston. TechCrunch headquarters is based out west in Silicon Valley but we’re mostly on the east coast here at CrunchGear.
Is your house still vacant? Any interest in letting me house sit for April and May? I have just sold my townhouse in SLP (just west of Costco) and will be closing on the sale on April 15th. Then I will be shipping all of my stuff down to Cincinnati, where all of my family lives. Sort of an early retirement. But my job with Ameriprise doesn’t finish up until May 30th. So, I have 6 weeks here in SLP, without a place to live. Those “extended stay” places are very expensive. And staying with my friends, for 6 weeks, would definitely be overstaying my welcome. I would pay $1000 and I would be an incredibly reliable tenant. References available.