S.F. citywide Wi-Fi plan fizzles as provider backs off

[poster_boy]

Mayor Gavin Newsom's high-profile effort to blanket San Francisco with a free wireless Internet network died Wednesday when provider EarthLink backed out of a proposed contract with the city.

The contract, which was three years in the making, had run into snags with the Board of Supervisors, but ultimately it was undone when Atlanta-based EarthLink announced Tuesday that it no longer believed providing citywide Wi-Fi was economically viable for the company.
...

In January, the city agreed to a deal in which EarthLink would have paid the city $2 million for the right to build, install and run a free Wi-Fi network and to partner with Google to provide Internet service. People could have paid $20 per month for a faster connection.

But the proposed contract stalled at the Board of Supervisors, whose approval was needed for the transaction to go forward.

SF Gate [sfgate.com]

[Quadrille]

"EarthLink's nascent municipal wireless projects in Philadelphia and Anaheim so far have not produced expected profits."

Anyone from Philadelphia or Anaheim able to add to that?