New EarthLink CEO evaluates muniwireless strategy
A pending decision by new EarthLink CEO Rolla Huff could dramatically impact the municipal wireless market — for better or for worse — within the next 60 to 90 days. A decision by new EarthLink CEO Rolla Huff could dramatically impact the municipal wireless market — for better or for worse — within the next 60 to 90 days.
To be sure, focused municipal broadband deployments (those leveraging applications like public safety, automated meter reading and video surveillance) have thrived in multiple cities — including Providence (Rhode Island), Corpus Christi (Texas) and Phoenix (Arizona).
But since we all know the public broadband market is evolving, we’ve found that some big, citywide initiatives -‚Äö?Ñ?¨ often focused on low-cost broadband service to close the digital divide ‚Äö?Ñ?¨- were too ambitious, too complex or too costly to deploy in a timely fashion. And many projects neglected to include existing city communications spending, keeping there from being an anchor tenant that could help ensure initial network viability.
The challenge for providers like EarthLink is to roll out these networks in an efficient manner, keeping deployment costs low and maximizing market penetration.
If Huff determines there isn’t a clear path to municipal wireless profits, he won’t hesitate to pull the plug on the Google-EarthLink project, according to the InformationWeek interview, published June 26.
Still, it’s important to put Huff’s statements ‚Äö?Ñ?¨ paraphrased by InformationWeek — in proper context. As an incoming CEO of a public company, Huff has to assure shareholders that he’s going to closely evaluate EarthLink’s operations. After all, the company lost $30 million in its most recent quarter.
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