Sacramento Approves New Wi-Fi Deal

June 22, 2007

The city council has approved a plan to offer free wireless Internet coverage in most areas of the city by late 2009.

Sacramento Metro Connect LLC will build the citywide network, which will be advertiser supported and offer download speeds of up to one megabit per second - about 20 times faster than dial-up.

A previous deal with Internet provider MobilePro Inc. fell apart a year ago because the city refused to become a so-called anchor tenant, or financial backer. MobilePro had spent several hundred thousand dollars on the project to blanket the city with Wi-Fi, as a handful of other cities around the nation already have done.

The Maryland-based company had proposed to offer a free, slower-speed service featuring streaming ads, and a faster-speed premium subscription service - similar to the agreement with SMC the council approved Thursday.

Sacramento has agreed to serve as an anchor tenant and buy its Internet service from SMC, which will also offer faster, fee-based services. However, the speeds available under the SMC contract are significantly faster than MobilePro had offered, said Steve Ferguson, the city's chief information officer.

Also, the SMC deal will allow users unlimited time online, Ferguson said.

Users would need only a Wi-Fi card and a computer to log on to the system from parks, cafes, businesses and homes.