|
By Olin Ericksen
Staff Writer
June 5 -- Despite serious concerns that could cause
a New Mexico community to cancel its contract, Santa Monica
officials will stick by a small start-up company to one day
blanket the City with wireless internet access, City officials
said.
Beating out internet giants such as Earthlink and Google,
Azulstar won the City’s favor in April, after promising
to provide some internet service for free citywide and use
up-to-date technology, according to City officials.
The decision came despite recent reports that one of six wireless
internet systems built nationwide by the company – in
Rio Rancho, New Mexico, 15 minutes from Albuquerque -- is
experiencing connection problems.
While Rio Rancho officials are currently weighing whether
to end their three-year-old contract, Santa Monica officials
expressed confidence in the company, which has not experienced
problems in the five other cities it serves.
"We looked into it and spoke with Azulstar and the City…
and we had some obvious concerns," said Jory Wolf, the
City's chief information officer and primary architect for
the its fledgling wireless system. "We are still comfortable
moving forward with Azulstar in Santa Monica."
At issue are basic matters of internet service, signal strength,
customer service and technology used by the company since
they first won a highly competitive bid with Rio Rancho in
2004, two years after the company was founded.
"Our license agreement represents a serious commitment
by the City to provide effective and efficient wireless data
access to our community," wrote Steve Ruger, Rio Rancho's
contracts administrator, in a May 11 letter obtained by The
Lookout.
Ruger lists a series of complaints -- some of which have since
been resolved -- that City officials said were grounds for
terminating their license agreement with Azulstar if conditions
do not improve in the next 45 days from the date of the letter.
"Azulstar's slow response in fulfilling its commitments
and customer service obligations to date has made it increasingly
difficult to expect that these objectives will be satisfied,"
Ruger wrote.
Over the last two years, large numbers of subscribers in
Rio Rancho have dropped the company as their wireless Internet
provider, according to published reports.
Each side is placing partial blame on the other for the lack
of use of the internet system, with the City claiming Azulstar
did not move fast enough to live up to their agreement to
blanket Rio Rancho and Azulstar suggesting the City did not
help lay a larger subscriber base in the community.
Meetings continue between Azulstar representatives and Rio
Rancho City officials and Ruger said by phone last week that
the fate of the contract is up in the air.
Meanwhile, Steve LeVeck, Azulstar’s vice president of
Corporate Development, said the problems in Rio Rancho stem
from being a once under-funded start-up company undergoing
growing pains.
The company, he said, has reorganized and received an influx
of financial backing and executive know-how in the last year.
"With our early organization, Rio Ranch was a learning
experience," LeVeck said. "We have since reorganized
our executive team and brought in some people from companies
that have invaluable experience."
Using newer, more powerful and reliable technology than was
first installed in Rio Rancho, Azulstar will strive for "scalability
and sustainability," in their new business plan, LeVeck
said.
"The new organization is addressing those shortcomings,"
he said.
As part of new license agreements, for instance, Azulstar
mandates that technology be changed every three years, something
Santa Monica has agreed to in their contract and something
that did not occur in Rio Rancho, LeVeck said.
A reported influx of capital from companies such as IBM may
also ensure that Azulstar has the money to install technology,
maintain it and provide service.
While Santa Monica City officials said they were reassured
by Azulstar representatives that many of the issues raised
in Rio Rancho have been addressed, the City is still proceeding
slowly in some areas, Wolf said.
"Our approach has been cautious," he said. "I
was very concerned about customer service issues."
Santa Monica has its advantages. The beachside city is denser
than Rio Rancho and boasts large companies that could enable
Azulstar to get a financial foothold early on in the community,
according City and company officials.
Some one dozen so-called "hotspots," already in
place in key geographic areas of Santa Monica, such as retail
strips and parks, will also give the company a leg up in installing
an infrastructure, according to City officials.
Santa Monica officials are currently testing Azulstar technology
and are expected to move forward with installing the equipment
in coming months.
|
