AFN wireless rates set

The Ashland City Council has approved rates for the Ashland Fiber Network's new wireless Internet service.

Known as afnAnywhere, the wireless service costs $3.95 per day, $12.95 a week or $30 per month, according to a Tuesday night council decision.

AFN customers who are already buying Internet service via cables from Internet Service Providers can add on wireless service for less. The city will charge ISPs a wholesale rate of $6.95 per month for the wireless service. The actual monthly retail rate customers will pay will depend on their ISP.

AFN staff members are continuing to build the afnAnywhere network, which now covers about 20 percent of the city, including the downtown Plaza area, Ashland Information Technology Director Joe Franell said.

He said he plans to keep the total network cost below $50,000.

The wireless service will allow AFN to reach pockets of the city that cannot be reached via cables, usually because of the high cost of bringing cables to homes.

Franell said since AFN's infancy, the city had made a commitment to make the service accessible to all residents.

"The commitment to build out with wired is still cost-prohibitive," he said. "If we want to meet that commitment we made to reach every citizen, we have to be creative." Franell said afnAnywhere is not intended to replace AFN's high-speed wired Internet. The wireless service is not as fast and reliable, and does not include technical support or e-mail accounts.

Instead, it can be used by people who want to access the Internet around town, and by those who can't get regular wired AFN service, he said.

Customers purchase the service over the Internet using a credit card, minimizing demands on city staff, Franell said.

Resident and government watchdog Art Bullock said the council should not approve a rate structure for afnAnywhere when Franell has not presented a business plan for the service that includes costs, revenue projections and customer estimates. He also noted that the council never voted to build the wireless network.

In other business Tuesday night, the council:

• heard Mayor John Morrison's proclamation of the week beginning on Sunday as "Eat Local Week" and Wednesday, Sept. 13, as Elisabeth Zinser and Don Mackin Day;
• approved Morrison's appointment of former Ashland City Councilor Steve Hauck to the Ashland Housing Commission;
• heard a report on the city's implementation of projects to meet the environmental goals of the Valdez Principles;
• authorized sending delinquent hotel tax and meals tax accounts to a collection agency and allowed the addition of fees;
• authorized $14,000 for outside legal fees;
• and set Sept. 19 as the date for a public hearing on a Timberline Subdivision property dispute.

Staff writer Vickie Aldous can be reached at 479-8199 or vlaldous@yahoo.com.