The Minneapolis city-wide wireless internet program will be honored Friday by the National League of Cities.
The public-private partnership — Wireless Minneapolis — will get a Silver Award for Municipal Excellence at the League’s annual convention in Denver.
Working with US Internet Wireless, the city program offers low-cost internet service throughout all 59 square miles of the city.
Donald J. Borut, NLC executive director, said: “Minneapolis’s program has improved the quality of life for all citizens by developing a creative solution to a pressing local problem.”
Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak is proud: “Being a wireless city is important, but we have to be a wireless city for everyone. The internet is no longer a luxury or curiosity. It is essential to success — for students, for businesses, for government, for anyone,” he said.
What a joke! Wireless Minneapolis doesn’t work and no self-respecting city department will use it. Neither will most citizens. How anyone can say all citizens benefit from it is beyond me.
Pat McGee is just wrong. I have used the service for 18 months; it has worked well and has been fast, at half the price of Qwest or Comcast.