Rough Week for Muni Wi-Fi in Several Cities
Aug 31, 2007
The Associated Press and The Wall Street Journal (sub required) are among those running stories today about the state of municipal Wi-Fi, following a string of announcements this week that dealt a blow to plans in several U.S. cities like San Francisco and Houston where the goal is to offer residents and business owners free and/or inexpensive wireless Net access using muni networks.
The WSJ reports that Earthlink, which had originally intended to cover the costs of building out Wi-Fi networks in a dozen cities that it's negotiating with, has informed those local governments that they can no longer afford to do so. Instead, Earthlink is asking for San Francisco and the other cities to pay for the construction. In San Francisco's case, the AP estimates the price tag to be between $14 million and $17 million. Earthlink was also fined $5 million by Houston for failing to meet a milestone for development of that city's municipal network.
Separately, the city of Chicago announced this week that it's scrapping its $18.5 million plan for a citywide network altogether because of the costs, and the future is uncertain for a $20 million Wi-Fi project in Milwaukee that is in the testing phase.
Despite the grim news this week, which points to a need for rethinking business models and approaches, the AP states that over 455 U.S. municipalities are considering Wi-Fi plans -- almost four times the number from two years ago.
Tags:
Broadband, Earthlink, muni wi-fi, Wireless
