The Austin Utilities Board will move forward with its wireless pilot project with the hope the entire community will be outfitted with equipment by October’s end.

“We’ve been working on this for a long time,” Austin Utilities support services director Kim Duncomb said. “It took legislation, changing our charter — there’s been a lot of time and energy put into this.”

Duncomb said the board gave the $1.2 million project “its blessing” after learning several weeks ago the wireless transmitters installed by contractor Arinc Inc. hadn’t met performance standards in the pilot phase of the project.

The problem was leaves, they said, that had grown late spring.

The Maryland-based company proposed new, more powerful equipment, which will brought in this week. The utility board agreed to the change so long as it wasn’t responsible for additional costs.

“Our costs are going to be the same,” Duncomb said.

The pilot encompasses a square-mile of downtown property from Oakland Avenue to Fourth Street Northwest. Once the transmitters have been tested and cleared, Arinc will phase in other quadrants of the city.

“Once that has been approved, then they’ll move the next area,” Duncomb said.

Approximately 425 access points will eventually exist throughout the community.

Prices have still not been determined, Duncomb said, though wireless plans will ultimately be serviced by locally-based Southern Minnesota Internet Group.

Arinc had initially proposed an earlier deadline, which would have had the system operational by December 2007. They have partnered with Blue Moon Internet Corp. for assistance with equipment installation.