MuniWireless

A tale of two cities: Philadelphia’s wireless network, acquired by a group of local investors, is being rolled out to parts of the city where there’s no access. More importantly, the investors are going after the municipal and business markets, two areas that EarthLink failed to focus on in its muni Wi-Fi strategy. Philly’s network sees over 100,000 users per day (correction: it’s not 100,000 users per day, but sessions per month — see Glenn Fleishman’s comment below), with more people online…

MetroFi will be shutting down Portland’s network this month. With only 30 percent of the city covered, MetroFi announced several months ago that it could no longer expand or operate the network. MetroFi wanted $9 million from the city to continue network expansion and operations, but the city does not want to pay. It has no plans to use the network for municipal purposes. Philadelphia managed to find local investors to take over EarthLink’s network, but Portland is taking a…

Naperville, Illinois has decided not to  take over the Wi-Fi network deployed by MetroFi after the company abandoned its plans to offer Wi-Fi service in a number of US cities, including Portland, Oregon. Taking over the network would have required Naperville to invest $3.7 million. Unless another ISP takes over the network, residents will no longer have free Wi-Fi access after June.

Related stories:

MetroFi selling muni Wi-Fi networks in Portland and other cities

Aurora, Naperville, networks won’t be built out

MetroFi is trying to sell its citywide Wi-Fi networks in Portland (Oregon), Aurora and Naperville (Illinois) and Santa Clara, Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Foster City and Concord (California). MetroFi founder, Chuck Haas, says he is also exploring the sale of MetroFi itself to a third party.

MetroFi is the latest service provider to exit the municipal wireless business. EarthLink has decided to shut down its network in Philadelphia and to stop the rollout of its network in Houston; Kite Networks, which had deployments…

Portland isn’t having a lot of luck with its service provider, MetroFi. The municipal wireless broadband network is supposed to be finished by summer this year, but some sources report that there’s only 15 to 20 percent coverage, mostly in the downtown area. MetroFi has told the city that it will not continue with the project unless the city makes a financial contribution in the form of an anchor tenancy. The city says that MetroFi should live up to its…