Two months after OnMilwaukee.com first reported on it, the City of Milwaukee is finally edging closer to the broadbanding of Brew City, according to Mayor Tom Barrett.

"We are beginning negotiations with a company that would (make) the city of Milwaukee a wireless city," Barrett told OnMilwaukee.com this morning.

Barrett sent a letter outlining the partnership plan with the Milwaukee-based Midwest Fiber Networks and other companies to the Common Council yesterday. Details -- including access to to conduits, City facilities, service details and revenue-generation -- will be hammered out in discussions, Barrett said.

"We are just going to start negotiations and hopefully the Common Council will give it their blessing today," said Barrett.

The Common Council's Finance and Personnel Committee, chaired by Ald. Michael Murphy, will discuss the plan at its meeting Wednesday morning.

In an Aug. 3 OnMilwaukee.com story, Milwaukee's chief information officer Randy Gschwind said, "I guess the answer is we've been trying to figure out how to do it ... and we've been talking to Time Warner and SBC about doing it elsewhere."

"I'm very excited about it," said Barrett. "I think it's great for Milwaukee. There are some cities that are further along in the negotiation process but we've got some infrastructure in place that may allow us to leapfrog them."

"Midwest Fiber Network’s goal is to work with Mayor Barrett and the City Council to make Milwaukee the number one wireless city in America and to set the standard for wireless accessibility," said Nik Ivancevic, a partner in Midwest Fiber Networks, in a City of Milwaukee press release.

Stay tuned for more. Meanwhile, read the entire Aug. 3 story here.