EarthLink: No More Cash for Muni Wi-Fi
Mon Nov 19, 2007 11:58AM EST
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The news keeps getting uglier and uglier for free, municipal Wi-Fi projects. The latest spot of misfortune: EarthLink, probably the biggest single company involved in citywide wireless rollouts, is not just ceasing investments in new muni Wi-Fi networks, now it's halting investments in networks it's already built or are partially completed.
That's bad news for cities like Philadelphia, which has been heralded as a model of good planning and fiscal responsibility in its wireless deployment efforts, at least up to now. Roughly 65 to 75 percent complete, the project is now described as "beset by delays and cost overruns," regularly besieged with customer complaints from users unable to connect to the network.
In other cities, like Houston, EarthLink is considering walking away from its investment altogether and abandoning the nascent project. Sources say EarthLink already has up to $50 million sunk in the Houston project alone.
Sadly, there's not many other companies out there even investigating the free muni Wi-Fi space. Only Google's Mountain View project gets much (positive) mention these days, and that network is largely thought of as experimental. Google's plans to bring Wi-Fi to San Francisco stalled out months ago, and no other cities are on tap to get service. Dark days for Wi-Fi, folks.
LINK: EarthLink Says No More Money for Existing Muni Networks
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2 Posted by bitemerck0226 on Fri Dec 28, 2007 6:14PM EST Report Abuse
comunications have to be free for a safe and secure world we live in, no one should be resticted from being able to have acsses even the less fortunate people of the world.
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1 Posted by agustin2489 on Mon Nov 19, 2007 12:50PM EST Report Abuse
That's why it's technically not a good idea to have a free WiFi service. Technical support is more or less overwhelmed all the time, maintenance isn't a priority, etc etc. If people are not willing to pay for good service, they usually don't get good service. Besides, if your cell phone carrier is fine with it, you can buy a broadband wireless card that connects with its network.