Philadelphia wants to buy Earthlink's former hardware, keep municipal WiFi dream aliv

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http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2009/12/philly-wifi-20091217.jpgIt never came to pass. Philadelphia's city-wide WiFi plan was announced in 2006 (http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/12/city-council-unanimously-approves-philly-wifi/) and then, after struggling on for two years, died when Earthlink decided (http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/08/earthlink-puts-municipal-wifi-business-up-for-sale/) it wanted nothing to do with muni wireless. A private company called NAC bought the hardware (http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/17/local-investors-step-in-to-save-phillys-wifi-network/) last year and now the city wants to buy it from them for $2 million. The Mayor's Office pledges to "provide free internet in targeted public spaces," which is somewhat less aggressive than the previous city-wide reach, but ditching the $20/month that Earthlink was asking seems like a fair trade. The only question now is exactly which spaces will be targeted, and if South Street Philly Bagels doesn't make the list that's a damn shame.Philadelphia wants to buy Earthlink's former hardware, keep municipal WiFi dream alive (http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/17/philadelphia-wants-to-buy-earthlinks-former-hardware-keep-muni/) originally appeared on Engadget (http://www.engadget.com) on Thu, 17 Dec 2009 08:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds (http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/).


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