The Downtown Community Partnership Board voted unanimously Thursday morning, May 18, to get the ball rolling on the project.

Midco, a cable and internet provider in Fargo-Moorhead, wants to put small devices up all over downtown to power the project, but the goal is to make them blend in with what's already there.

Midco hopes to use the sides of buildings, power poles and streetlights to bolster the signal, but before the devices get placed, the Fargo city officials have to sign off.

"We need to see the equipment, what it will look like, where it will be placed. We want to make sure it doesn't affect anything safety concern from a ... whether it's fire trucks and the signals that they have or something like that," said Derrick LaPoint of the city planning office.

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Another question has to do with security. Experts often suggest staying off websites that could expose sensitive information, such as bank accounts, while using public Wi-Fi. Midco said the Wi-Fi it wants to offer would be secure.

"You know, we've obviously got a great team of you know security experts that work 24/7 365 to protect our Midco customers and our network that's very important to us, and and that's no different with this initiative than anybody’s home or anywhere else," said Justin Forde, Midco director of public affairs.

While the free signal could get picked up by visitors, businesses and residents here would still have to pay for their own signals.

"It's not necessarily built for being inside of a building. So, if you want to sit out on a bench and have Wi-Fi, or use your phone on the Wi-Fi downtown, you'll be able to do that," said Jake Joraanstad of the Downtown Community Partnership.

For major events like the Street Fair, Midco would boost the signal so more people could use it.

If approved without delay, Midco says it could have the signal up and running by summer's end.