During the last six months, the prospects for delivering free high-speed wireless Internet service throughout metropolitan areas went from a sure bet to a sucker bet, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Even as Los Angeles explores building a free or low-cost citywide Wi-Fi system, cities such as San Francisco, Chicago and Houston are delaying or pulling the plug on similar plans.
The catalyst for the sudden retrenchment came last month when Internet service provider EarthLink Inc., the nation’s largest builder of municipal Wi-Fi networks, said it was halting work on such projects and bailing out of some contracts as part of a massive corporate restructuring.
The Atlanta company plans to complete construction in Anaheim and Philadelphia, the nation’s first major city to embrace broadband wireless, and operate those and a few other existing locations.
But EarthLink is stopping all new projects until it figures out a way to make money.
Offering wireless Internet service for free is a business model that is “simply unworkable,” EarthLink Chief Executive Rolla Huff said.
