Metrofi’s trials in Portland are not news. It was widely reported last year that the company would not continue to build out the network without an anchor tenant commitment from the city. But a catch-up article in the Portland Business Journal last week prompted an interesting analysis of models for ad-supported networks on DailyWireless.org. The [...]

Minneapolis’ Digital Inclusion Fund awarded a total of $200,000 in nine grants to local organizations in an effort to address the digital divide in that city. The fund, which is managed by the Minneapolis Foundation, was created last year under the terms of a contract with US Internet Wireless, provider of Minneapolis’ city-wide Wi-Fi network. [...]

In the wake of EarthLink’s retreat from the market and a general absence of vendor partners willing to foot the bill to build out free city-wide networks, it seems that more and more cities are finding Meraki Networks’ community-based approach attractive. The latest is Ypsilanti, Michigan, which will use the Meraki model to provide free [...]

Front Range Internet, the Colorado service provider handling the wireless network deployment in Fort Collins, Colorado, is making some changes to its business model for Fort Collins’ public access application. Barry Eastman, FRII’s director of special projects, notes that the Fort Collins network is transitioning from the initial “partial-free” model (30 minutes of free access [...]