"We are humbled by our local government's continued commitment to Wireless Oakland and look forward to them being a strategic partner in the initiative," Oakland County Executive, L. Brooks Patterson said. "The Project Team had approximately thirty local governments who expressed interest in being a pilot community and it was difficult for us to select the final communities."
The Pilot Projects will be started by the end of 2005 and should be completed during the first quarter of 2006. County-wide wireless internet coverage is expected in mid to late 2007. "This is a major milestone in our effort to blanket Oakland County's entire 910 square miles with wireless internet service, a portion of which will be offered free of charge, Patterson said.
The County's private-sector partner MichTel will own, operate and maintain the project. Free Internet service will be offered at the lower bandwidth, but the private sector partners will charge fees for higher end service.