But Bertolini was also quick to point out that Wireless Oakland is completely different from the other projects encountering problems. For example, Bertolini notes that these other initiatives have relied solely on an advertising revenue stream.  Wireless Oakland, he says, has multiple revenue streams which provide a much more stable income for the private provider.

MichTel Communications LLC., a major Wireless Oakland partner, is continuing to talk to private investors in order to obtain the funding required to complete the project.  The company is very confident it will be successful in accomplishing this goal sometime early in 2008.

The Phase One development of the seven pilot communities has proven to be extremely successful.  Phase One deployment has 19,000 users on the network who have used a combined total of more than 23 million minutes of “free” Internet service since March 2007.

“We have significant investor interest in the Wireless Oakland initiative but the negative experiences in other projects have shaken confidence in the potential investor pool,” said Tony Yangouyian, CFO for MichTel Communications. “We are currently working very closely with investors that understand the wireless space and hope to have them signed up very soon.”

In the meantime, Bertolini says the Wireless Oakland team will continue to prepare for future phases of the Wireless Oakland project.

“This is just another bump in the road that we will work hard to overcome,” said Bertolini.  “We believe this project will move forward.”

The county’s private sector partner will fund, own, operate and maintain the Wireless Oakland network and county tax dollars will not be used to subsidize or fund the effort. Free wireless Internet service will be offered at a lower bandwidth and the private sector partner will charge fees for additional services.

Additional information about the Wireless Oakland initiative can be found at www.WirelessOakland.org.