Earthlink bails on municipal WiFi

For some time now Earthlink has seen municipal WiFi projects as a great way to get into markets which they did not have a strong foothold. Recently they have begun to withdraw most involvement in such projects after coming to a realization that profits would not be seen for some time.

Stating that investing anymore time or capital in municipal WiFi projects is inconsistent Earthlink's goals when in comes to increasing shareholder value. They had been hinting at such a move since the beginning of the year as one of their more costly ventures, Philidelphia, had not panned out as they had hoped it would. Following the higher-than-expected costs for nodes in Philly, Earthlink ran into a few problems in Chicago and Houston, leading them to basically give up.

Apparently the entire Municipal Wireless business model has been sputtering. Even in tech/venture capital rich Silicon Valley there is nearly no desire to begin such investments. However Corpus Christi, Texas has managed a very efficient wireless system. It just might be too soon, but keep your fingers crossed.

[via http://www.ArsTechnica.com]