PONTIAC, Mich.-Wireless Oakland selected Pontiac-based MichTel Communications L.L.C. to provide countywide wireless Internet service.
The value of the project has not been released.
Thirteen companies bid to provide the service, the county said in a news release. The project aims to blanket Oakland County, Michigan, with free wireless Internet access.
The service will be rolled out in pilot projects in Troy, Birmingham, Pontiac, Royal Oak, Madison Heights, Oak Park and Wixom. The project areas encompass 78,172 residents.
MichTel demonstrated the services during the Arts, Beats & Eats festival in downtown Pontiac during the Labor Day weekend.
The county expects to have contracts for the pilot project wrapped up soon and the projects to be under way by the end of the year. Service for the pilot project is expected to begin in the first quarter of next year.
The county’s private-sector partners plan to own, operate and maintain the wireless network. Low-speed wireless service will be offered for free, and higher-speed services will be offered by the companies for a fee, the county said.
“We appreciate MichTel Communications’ commitment to Wireless Oakland,” Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson said. “They demonstrated during the Arts, Beats and Eats Festival they could offer reliable wireless Internet service in a timely manner and have also assembled an impressive team of partners that will showcase the possibilities of the Wireless Oakland initiative.”
Tony Yangouyian, general manager of MichTel, said the company is “in negotiations with several Fortune 100 companies” and expects to complete a partnership within the next month.
MichTel Communications is an operating subsidiary of NetCom L.L.C., a company formed in 2003 as a holding company for former bankrupt company MichTel Inc.
This story was reported by RCRNews.com’s sister Web site, Crainsdetroit.com
