For the next week, Midwest Fiber will be locating places to install the equipment that will transmit wireless signals.,”Preliminary work began Monday on Milwaukee's citywide wireless Internet network. Mayor Tom Barrett finalized a contract with Midwest Fiber Networks Wednesday.

For the next week, Midwest Fiber will be locating places to install the equipment that will transmit wireless signals. The test area includes Marquette — it runs from Canal Street to Vliet Street and 10th Street to 43rd Street.

The purpose of the demonstration area is to provide a place to work out the procedures for installing and engineering the equipment.

"We need to figure out how long it will take us to build out each square mile," said Donna Raffaelli, co-owner of Midwest Fiber Networks.

A deal with Midwest Fiber was originally struck Jan. 18 with the Milwaukee Common Council. The deal called for a demonstration area to be completed by May, and the entire project by July 2007. But four months after the demonstration area was originally scheduled to be completed, it has only just started.

Raffaelli said the delay was simply due to detail work.

"There was no holdup in negotiations. We weren't disputing terms or conditions of the contract," Raffaelli said. "We were verifying tax rules and talking about access to facilities. We were figuring out the checks and balances."

The current plan is for the demonstration area to be completed by January 2007. The whole network should be up and running in 18 months.

Midwest Fiber will pay an estimated $20 million to build the network. The company will then sell rights to use the network to Internet service providers. In turn, the service providers will sell wireless Internet access to individuals and companies.

Midwest Fiber will continue to operate the network for the next 14 years. Eventually, the city will share in Midwest Fiber's revenue.

Some individuals and businesses in the city already have wireless networks. Marquette has wireless hotspots around campus, including Raynor Library and the Alumni Memorial Union. Midwest Fiber will lay its network over existing forms of wireless Internet access.

Kathy Lang, chief information officer of Marquette's Information Technology Services, wrote in an e-mail that Marquette plans on keeping its wireless hotspots. The university will also continue to build its own wireless network. Lang wrote that all residence halls will be wireless by December.

Marquette will not blend its wireless plans with the city's network. However, Marquette students will be able to log onto the citywide network without consequences.

"The citywide network is totally separate from the MU network," Lang wrote. "Students' use of the citywide network would have no effect on the MU network."

Lang said students who want to use the city network "must purchase service from one of the ISPs (Internet service providers) affiliated with Midwest Fiber."

Midwest Fiber has not yet announced which ISP it will favor. Raffaelli said she hopes to make that announcement soon.

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