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…

By now, many of you have read about the rescue of Philadelphia’s citywide wireless networks. The gist of events is that Councilman Bill Green felt the network was a vital city asset that should be saved, so he initiated contact with potential investors a couple of days after the last deal imploded in May. The new investors structured a deal in which they are creating a service provider, Network Acquisition Company (NAC, a temporary name), to finish and operate the…

A group of investors has bought EarthLink’s Philadelphia municipal wireless network. Among the investors are Mark Rupp and Derek Pew, executives at Boathouse Communications Partners, an investment firm, and Richard Rasansky, a local entrepreneur.. Dave Hanna, chairman of Tropos Networks, is also part of the group (note: the Philadelphia network uses Tropos equipment). They will expand the network and offer wired and wireless service. News sources are reporting that the new owner plans to target institutions around the city as…

Nothing is official yet but Philly news sources are reporting that a group of local investors will be taking over EarthLink’s municipal wireless network in Philadelphia. EarthLink wanted to shut down the network after failing to find a buyer. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the investors will offer free Wi-Fi service supported by advertising and charge local institutions (universities, hospitals) for secure citywide Wi-Fi access at a price. Philadelphia’s mayor is expected to make an official announcement today.

Last year, New America Foundation released an in-depth report and analysis of the Wireless Philadelphia Project, “The Philadelphia Story: Learning from a Municipal Wireless Pioneer.” We concluded that the private franchise model was suboptimal and that Philadelphia’s solution was problematic in a number of ways. At the time, we received good press coverage and a helluvalot of blowback from certain constituencies (who continued to assert that everything was on track).

Now that we’ve made it to May, 2008, Wireless Philadelphia is…

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…