Aproject meant to test the feasibility  of WiMAX service in two Iowa  cities has been bogged down by a  scarcity of equipment, and a third city  has nixed the idea of providing the  service itself.

Iowa Network Services, a West Des  Moines-based telecommunications  company, had planned to begin pilot  WiMAX networks in Norwalk and  Mason City by last fall, but has been  unable to obtain the necessary equipment  from the manufacturers, said  Richard Vohs, the company’s president  and CEO. He said he now hopes the  equipment will come in by this summer.  Additionally, INS has faced challenges  in siting some of the towers  needed to provide the service, he said.

The city of Urbandale, which conducted  a separate study of the feasibility  of a municipally owned WiMAX system,  concluded that such a system  would be too cost-prohibitive for the  city to provide, said Bob Layton, Urbandale’s  city manager.

WiMAX, which offers the potential to  provide wireless broadband Internet service  for an entire city,is a technology that is  still in the nascent stages, even in larger  metropolitan areas such as Chicago.

Urbandale is currently negotiating  with a wireless provider that would  provide a more limited Wi-Fi service for  its police and fire departments and  some city offices, Layton said.

“I think everybody’s a little further  behind than they would have hoped  to be at this point,”Vohs said.”But we  still believe it’s coming, and that it  won’t be long.”