For proponents of citywide Wi-Fi projects, this has been a tough year — and one of fresh promise.
The idea of setting up networks to beam wireless Internet access across entire cities and towns has been touted for years as a spur to economic development. It also has been promoted as a way to help bridge the digital divide — the gap between those who have access to the Internet and other digital technology and those who don’t, mainly because of lower income.
Progress on such networks has been halting, however, because of financial, technical and political hurdles. Over the past year or so, there has been a string of reversals. The companies that built and maintained some of the most prominent municipal Wi-Fi networks abandoned them, and other projects stalled or were scaled back.
At the same time, though, a handful of communities have applied lessons learned from the first round of failed projects and are developing Wi-Fi networks that are more realistic in their ambitions and business models.
“This was about a business model that simply didn’t work,” said Rolla Huff, chief executive of EarthLink, after the Internet service provider announced in May that it would stop serving the Wi-Fi network it had built in Philadelphia, a project that inspired communities across the country to initiate similar efforts.
“It was a great idea,” said Huff. “It wasn’t a great business.”
EarthLink put itself in a financial hole from the start by setting up the network at its own expense, and then the service didn’t attract enough users to offset that investment and the costs of operating the network. In the meantime, other cities followed Philadelphia’s example, getting Internet service providers to cover most or all of the cost of setting up Wi-Fi networks.
“That’s where all of these cities got into trouble,” said…