Oakland County has many positive initiatives underway that are addressing the needs of the business community as well as the needs of the residents. One program that will have a significant impact across the County is Wireless Oakland.
As I have received a number of inquiries on this program, I thought it would make a good topic for this article.
Wireless Oakland was a vision that was developed a number of years ago. The initial purpose, which remains the same today, was to provide a free, base level, internet service throughout the entire county in order to enhance the county’s ability to attract and retain high-tech companies and support our growing mobile workforce.
Wireless Oakland has three main goals. The first goal is to blanket the county with wireless internet access, with a base level service that will be provided for free to every resident, business and visitor. The second goal is to directly address the county’s ‘digital divide? by providing services to those in the county who generally do not have access to the internet and other similar services. The third goal is to enhance the quality and character of Oakland County while maximizing the high-tech investments that have already been made in the county.
As the Wireless Oakland program began to take shape, the county was able to partner with private sector organizations who agreed to work with the county at their own expense to implement the basic level service offering. This allowed the cost of the program to be minimized from a county and taxpayer perspective.
The private sector organizations were willing to enter into the Wireless Oakland program because they believe they will be rewarded financially in the future as they will be able to offer additional services to residents, business and visitors who take advantage of this leading edge technology.
In order to take the first step in providing the free internet service, an implementation schedule had to be developed. The implementation schedule consists of first providing free internet service to seven predetermined pilot areas (Defined areas of Troy, Birmingham, Royal Oak, Madison Heights, Oak Park, Wixom and Pontiac). The pilot areas are on target to be up and running by the end of this month.
The next step will be to begin building out the infrastructure to areas surrounding the pilot communities until the entire county has obtained coverage. Complete county coverage is scheduled to be completed by the summer of 2008.
For more details on the implementation schedule and other aspects of this program, please visit the Wireless Oakland website which can be found at www.oakgov.com/wireless.
I believe Wireless Oakland is a strong program that will advance the technological offerings in Oakland County. I also believe that Wireless Oakland is a key building block in the technological infrastructure that will serve future generations of county residents. I trust that you will find the Wireless Oakland is a valuable program that is being brought to you by your county government.
As previously stated, the purpose of this article is to help inform the community on issues within county government and to make county government more accessible to the citizens of Orion Township and the Village of Lake Orion. I trust this article has achieved that goal.
Please stay tuned for upcoming issues of the Commissioner’s Corner.
If you have an issue that you would like to discuss with me or if you have an item that you would like to see included in future Commissioner’s Corner articles, please contact me at the County at (248)858-0100 or gingellm@oakgov.com.