Illinois’ tri-cities find a new provider

Illinois’ tri-cities–Batavia, and St. Charles–have found a service provider to unwire them on their own terms. The cities balked at MetroFi’s insistence that they partner as anchor tenants. Now MeshLink Wireless, Inc., says it will offer a free tier of service with no ads, supported by consumers’ upgrades to faster speeds and other consumer services.Illinois’ tri-cities–Batavia, and St. Charles–have found a service provider to unwire them on their own terms. The cities balked at MetroFi’s insistence that they partner as anchor tenants. Now MeshLink Wireless, Inc., says it will offer a free tier of service with no ads, supported by consumers’ upgrades to faster speeds and other consumer services.

The cities’ negotiations with MetroFi unraveled this spring when the cities refused to sign on as anchor tenants of their networks, a provision MetroFi has sought from its partners since 2005. Meshlink of Plano, Texas, has made no such request. In fact, it will even pay the cities for access to their utility poles, as well as pay for the electricity required by the network.

This seems like a suprising throw-back to the business models of yore in which service providers offered munis multiple freebies for the right to do business in their cities. If MeshLink makes a go of it, the cities will make fascinating case studies. They seem to be moving against the present tide.

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