The movement to deploy municipal wireless networks is underway in cities of all sizes, and now the city of Corvallis, Oregon is only the latest community to take steps toward going wireless. At this juncture, the city is looking at various ways to upgrade their limited wireless networks currently used by police officers and other first responders. With that in mind, the has signed a memorandum of understanding with Intel to explore their citywide network options. In addition, there are plans to issue a RFP by late winter/early spring.

So far, it seems Corvallis city officials are looking at three scenarios:

• A city-owned network that would charge users for access.
• A privately-built network that would be used by city agencies and residents.
• A partnership wherby Corvallis would partner with another party to share operating and maintenance costs.

Since Corvallis is not a large metropolis, it is expected that the second and third choices would be the ones to focus on, but with the growing number of networks being built and deployed across the country, it could be that costs could go down as volume goes up. Time will certainly tell in this case.