Wi-Fi firm faces legal action over delays in St. Louis Park

St. Louis Park had set its sights on having the nation's first citywide wireless Internet service powered by the sun.

But those dreams have been clouded by reality.

The City Council will vote Monday on whether to find Arinc -- the Wi-Fi system's Maryland-based contractor -- in default of its contract, in part because the project is months behind schedule.

Last spring, the city told residents to expect service by June.

This summer, it told them to expect service by fall.

This fall, it said to expect service by Nov. 30.

Now, the city isn't even guessing.

The city is "very seriously" considering suing Arinc, said spokesman Jamie Zwilling.

The council held a closed-door meeting Dec. 3 to discuss the possibility of a lawsuit and what effect it might have on the project's completion.

In language used in that meeting's agenda, City Manager Tom Harmening wrote: "The city's Wi-Fi contractor, Arinc, has been, and continues to be, in substantial default under the terms of its contract with the city."

Clint Pires, the city's chief information officer, estimated that the city has lost more than $300,000 in revenues because of the delays.

Arinc staff members declined to be interviewed for this article, said Linda Hartwig, a spokeswoman for Arinc. But in conversations with the city, the company reportedly has cited technical problems as the cause of the delays.

"We need certain levels out on the street, and then we move to testing those speeds and capacities inside the homes," Harmening said. "We haven't even gotten to that point yet."

The technical problems are not related to solar power, Harmening said. The solar panels are properly charging the batteries that power the system's radios.

The hardware needed to collect solar power is one reason for the project's delay, however. Last spring, the city paused during setup when residents complained about the look and location of the 16-foot-tall Wi-Fi poles, which are now scattered throughout the city. That led to a two-month setback.

The idea of using solar power was Arinc's, and it was one reason the company said it was able to offer the lowest bid to build the city's network. It's proposal, at $1.7 million, was $700,000 less than the next lowest bidder, in part because most Wi-Fi networks rely on electrical poles, and renting that space and power is expensive.

The city planned to offer service ranging from 128,000 bits per second for $15 a month to 2.5 million to 3 million bits per second for $30 a month. That's cheaper than traditional providers.

Nancy Gibson is one of them. She has "been anxious to drop Comcast," she said, and was disappointed to hear of the citywide service's setbacks.

"I hate not having choices, and right now we don't have much choice," Gibson said. "Now [Comcast] is raising their rates -- it'll go up $5, $6, $7 -- and we'll have no say in the matter."

She's not a fan of lawsuits, she said, but she feels like St. Louis Park might be backed into a corner.

St. Louis Park has been working to get citywide wireless for more than two years. Since then, hundreds of residents have participated in a small-scale test run of a Wi-Fi network -- one that was not solar-powered and not built by Arinc. Although it wasn't without problems, the general success of that pilot program convinced the city to take the service citywide.

In recent weeks, residents have tested Arinc's network in the city's northeast quadrant, but many have complained about spotty, slow service. While the city will continue the original pilot for now, officials aren't sure whether Arinc's pilot will proceed.