MuniWireless

AT&T is abandoning another city-wide Wi-Fi network deployoment, this time in Napa, California, where the company reports that utility poles are too short to allow antennas to be properly mounted.

According to a report in The Napa Valley Register, the city and AT&T are ending their partnership. It seems that after the two inked their deal in February, the California Public Utilities Commission issued regulations specifying how Wi-Fi antennas should be attached to utility poles. According to an AT&T spokesperson, there was no room to install the antennas after allowing for new safety clearances on high-voltage lines.

Last week AT&T stepped away from a city-wide deployment in St. Louis. There the issue was maintaining a continuous flow of electricity to power the antennas 7X24. AT&T is now looking limited deployments of downtown hot-spots in both cities.

Municipal applications and public safety were big motivators in Napa but the city also planned to offer 10 hours of ad-support service offered to consumers each month. Ad-free subscriptions would have been sold for about $20 per month.

Click here to read the story.