The New York Times editorial board has seen Long Island’s Wi-Fi plans for what they are: a long shot.
After Newsday ran an article this week about the nowhere-state of Long Island’s municipal Wi-Fi plans, which was a dead ringer for an article Long Island Business News ran one month ago, the respected New York paper has ruled, “Long Island should keep looking.”
A particularly interesting feature of the NY Times editorial: They tried to find a phone number for E-Path Communications, the Tampa company selected by Nassau and Suffolk counties to build the network, and could not.
Also, it seems the chief operating officer of E-Path ran away.
And Suffolk’s chief information officer, Sharon Cates-Williams, the director of the Wi-Fi plan, is leaving her post at the end of the month to take a position in the state’s information technology department.
Who’s left? LI Biz Blog senses this project is dead.
From the Times piece:
This may be a classic example of getting what you pay for, especially when you are dealing with a phone company with no phone number. “Searching Tampa and surroundings,” the directory assistance operator told us, “I’m finding no listings for ‘E-Path Communications’; I’m sorry.’’
We are, too. Emails to the four top executives listed on the company’s web site, epathcommunications.com, got no replies, except for this automated one from the chief operating officer, Michael E. Martin: “Please be advised that effective April 14, 2008, I am no longer with E-Path.”
The lesson, which Mr. Levy and others were warned about last year and ignored, is that public wi-fi needs public dollars, and that the investment is probably worth it. As this editorial page has put it: “Broadband service is no longer a luxury. It has become a basic part of the infrastructure of education and democracy.” It also requires a lot more start-up money than rosy press releases and ill-informed politicians would have you believe.
Wow. I can’t believe it. A government sponsored program that wasted our tax dollars. How unusual.
No, that would be a government-encouraged program that DIDN’T spend your tax dollars. No taxpayer money was used.
Excuse me but how many hours of time did Sharon Cates-Williams and numerous other Suffolk County staff members spend their tax paid hours on this project. Just because direct dollars weren’t spent doesn’t mean that it didn’t cost taxpayers a lot.
The county can find a way to make this work, just not as the RFP was written originally, and it can be cost neutral for the county, and possibly a cost savings. It just has to redefine what kind of a network it wants, and what it will be used for. A new RFP should be issued, without spending more on Civitium and without the blanket coverage requirement. The company able to craft the best proposal for the county, in terms of cost savings and public benefit should be chosen. There are creative people out here that can come up with a solution worthy of award.
[...] 16, 2008 by Henry E. Powderly II We called it dead, and so did other media outlets, but Suffolk County Steve Levy assures us the plan to blanket Long Island with a municipal Wi-Fi [...]