Patterson blasts Battle Creek rep over proposed Wireless Oakland ban
From Great Lakes IT Report:
A furious Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson Monday ripped State Rep. Mike Nofs, R-Battle Creek, after Nofs announced he would introduce a bill to ban projects like Wireless Oakland. Patterson, a Republican, also said he believes Nofs' proposal is political payback for Patterson's support of Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm's ideas for Single Business Tax reform. "I think frankly Mike Nofs ought to tend to business in Battle Creek and get the hell out of Oakland County's way," Patterson said, calling Nofs' proposal "mean-spirited" and "shortsighted." Earlier Monday, WWJ Newsradio 950 Lansing Bureau Chief Tim Skubick reported that Nofs called Wireless Oakland an anti-competitive concept that gets government too deeply into the private sector. In an interview with the IT Report Monday night, Nofs said that while Wireless Oakland may stem from noble motives, he believes government should stay out of the way of telecommunications -- and that the private sector will provide services if allowed to compete freely. Under Wireless Oakland, the county would offer wireless Web service providers no-charge access to more than 2,400 radio towers, water tanks, tornado siren poles, traffic lights and other powered locations where wireless transmitters could be located. In exchange, the service providers would offer a basic level of wireless Web access free across every square inch of the county's 910 square miles. The companies building the system would be free to sell access at higher speeds. Patterson said he and Oakland County CIO Phil Bertolini met with Nofs several times to outline the proposal and that "he knows this is not a government owned and operated system. He knows that the private sector would own and operate this system and reap all the economic benefit." Instead, Patterson said Wireless Oakland is a simple county purchase -- in this case, a barter of free wireless Web access for residents in exchange for free access to the county's towers and other locations.
