Ziff Davis: Muni WIFI Fading

[brooklynite]

The city of Chicago is abandoning its plan to build a municipal WiFi network. Negotiations with the two providers who had offered to run the network were not fruitful. The development is typical of changes in the field of municipal WiFi, which has seen a series of failures in deployments and commercial ventures.

Just a few years ago, numerous cities large, medium, and small announced plans to build WiFi networks that would blanket the city. There were many major goals: the biggest rhetorical one, at least in larger cities such as Philadelphia, was "to bridge the digital divide." Wireless access would be available in parts of the city underserved by broadband providers. It would be inexpensive and, to qualified customers, free. It would be available to schools.

The other major goal was competitiveness. Universal availability of wireless access would make the city more attractive to business and conventions, or so the theory went.

But many of the early deployments are disappointing, and Earthlink, the ISP that had invested heavily in large municipal wireless installations, is laying off people and backing away from the projects.

http://www.digitalinfrastructure.ziffdavis.com/article/Muni+WiFi+Fading/214528_1.aspx

Too bad - with the proliferation of iPhones and other portable wifi terminals, this would be a great way to maintain communications access.