Why Wi-Fi Networks Are Floundering

WHY WI-FI NETWORKS ARE FLOUNDERING
[SOURCE: BusinessWeek, AUTHOR: Olga Kharif]
The road is getting bumpier for cities and the companies they have partnered with in a bid to blanket their streets with high-speed Internet access at little or no cost to users. While 415 U.S. cities and counties are now building or planning to build municipal Wi-Fi networks, "deployments are slowing down slightly," says Esme Vos, founder of consultancy MuniWireless.com. Vos's tally still marks a nearly 70% jump from mid-2006, when there were 247 muni Wi-Fi projects on tap, but that's down from the torrid pace of a year earlier, when deployment plans doubled. Perhaps the clearest hint of trouble ahead is that some of the companies partnering with cities on these projects, including EarthLink and AT&T, are having second thoughts about remaining in the municipal Wi-Fi business.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2007/tc20070814_929868...

* Community Wi-Fi comes to San Francisco
While EarthLink and Google are still hammering out details of their citywide Wi-Fi contract with San Francisco officials, a company called Meraki plans on blanketing the city with free Wi-Fi using volunteers who will deploy and manage the equipment themselves.
http://news.com.com/Community+Wi-Fi+comes+to+San+Francisco/2100-7351_3-6...