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<font face="verdana, franklin gothic,franklingothic, arial,helvetica"
size="-2"><font class="plainsansserif"><font class="storydate">Sunday,
October 7, 2007</font>
<br>
<br>
<font class="storyhead">Plan For Internet Service Fizzles</font>
<br>
<br>
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<!--TITLE: Plan For Internet Service Fizzles--><!--COPYRIGHT:Copyright
2007 <a
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Journal</a>--><!--AUTHOR: Rosalie Rayburn-->
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<span title="E-mail reporter Rosalie Rayburn! " class="popup"><a
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class="storybyline">By Rosalie Rayburn</font></a> </span><br>
<font class="storycredit"><!--ss-->Journal Staff Writer</font><br>
<font class="storybody"><!--es-->
A bold initiative to use cutting edge technology to bring free wireless
Internet service to Rio Rancho was once hailed as visionary.<br>
But the vision ended last month when city officials sent a letter to
wireless company Azulstar, terminating its contract to provide the
service.<br>
According to the letter, Azulstar failed to pay electricity charges,
provide a satisfactory business plan and proof of its financial ability
to offer continued service.<br>
Azulstar signed the 25-year contract with the city in October 2004 to
operate a wireless network on city property and rights of way. In
return, it offered a limited-time free Internet service to residents of
Rio Rancho.<br>
The termination followed months of negotiations and threats by the city
to dump Azulstar over complaints of poor service, lack of customer
support and unpaid electric bills.<br>
City officials initially championed the network's benefits, although
the city didn't invest money in the project.<br>
But Azulstar's network never really got off the ground— subscriber
numbers were small, and the seeds of the problems that eventually ended
Rio Rancho's municipal wi-fi experiment were there early on.<br>
A contract with Usurf, another company hired to build the wi-fi network
ended abruptly after the corporation that bought Usurf said the project
no longer fit its business model. City officials then chose Azulstar.<br>
Shortly after the city signed the deal, a communications expert warned
them of severe technical and financial drawbacks in Azulstar's proposal
for Rio Rancho.<br>
But the possible benefits of the project and its kudos value for making
Rio Rancho one of the first cities to have a wi-fi network appeared to
outweigh the warnings.<br>
"The way we crafted it, the city had nothing to lose," former City
Manager Jim Palenick told the Journal in a phone interview on Friday.<br>
According to Palenick, Intel proposed the wireless project to city
officials and helped find a wireless provider. They picked Azulstar
because it had experience creating a municipal network in Grand Haven,
Mich. He said the city didn't invest any money in the project and the
contract simply allowed Azulstar to use city rights of way.<br>
Unlike the Sandoval County Broadband project, which is using public
money to fund a countywide-wireless network, Azulstar built its network
using about $1.5 million raised from private investors, he said.<br>
City officials and Intel touted the wi-fi network as a catalyst to spur
economic development.<br>
A USA Today article in 2004 quoted Terry McDermott of Intel talking
about the advantages of having a wi-fi network saying, "You could bring
your company to Rio Rancho and you don't have to worry about the
infrastructure needs that you normally would have by rewiring or going
into an old building."<br>
Announcing the deal with Azulstar, then-Mayor Jim Owen, a former Intel
site manager, said, "City-wide wi-fi will enhance the way people work,
play and live in our rapidly growing city."<br>
For residential customers, Azulstar's plan offered one hour of free
service daily. Monthly subscriptions started at $14.95. Company founder
Tyler Van Houwelingen claimed he had 2,500 free service and paying
customers when Rio Rancho terminated his contract.<br>
Soon after service began in 2005, city officials began hearing
complaints from customers about inconsistent service.<br>
Communications consultant Peter Baston of Santa Fe-based Ideas Inc.
told the Journal recently that he warned Palenick and city councilors
that Azulstar's wi-fi Internet signals would not penetrate through the
stucco-and-chicken wire materials used in most Rio Rancho homes.<br>
In a phone interview on Friday, Van Houwelingen admitted he
underestimated the stucco-and-chicken wire problem. Azulstar's
experience was with brick or frame and siding homes in Michigan, he
said.<br>
Baston also warned about Internet service competition from Qwest and
Cable One. He urged the city to invest in a fiber optic cable network.<br>
Palenick said in his interview that he didn't recall any communications
with Baston.<br>
"Numbers at the beginning looked good," Palenick said.<br>
He said Azulstar believed it would get a private subscriber base that
would make the service economically viable. Many other cities that have
tried similar experiments have found they can't survive with
residential subscribers only, Palenick said.<br>
Van Houwelingen said he proposed new technology to overcome the service
quality problems, but the city declined. He is now building a system
using that technology in Miami Beach, Fla. The Miami Beach police force
is the primary customer, but residents will also be able to use part of
the network, van Houwelingen said.<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: maroon;">Peter
Baston</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: maroon;">IDEAS</span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: maroon;"><a
href="http://www.ideapete.com/"><em><span style="font-family: Arial;">www.ideapete.com</span></em></a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><st1:Street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: maroon;">3210 La
Paz Lane</span></st1:address></st1:Street></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on"><span
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<p class="MsoNormal"><st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><em><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: maroon;">Albuquerque</span></em></st1:place></st1:City><em><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: maroon;"> Office:
505-890-9649</span></em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><em><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: maroon;">Santa Fe</span></em></st1:place></st1:City><em><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: maroon;"> Office:
505-629-4227</span></em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><em><span
style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: maroon;">Cell:
505-690-3627</span></em></p>
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866-642-8918</span></em></p>
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