The city of Philadelphia announced that it will buy Wireless Philadelphia for $2 million. The struggling municipal WiFi network was built by Earthlink
The existing Wi-Fi network has been operated by the Network Acquisition Co., which bought the assets off Earthlink in June 2008. The $2 million that NAC will get from the city is the same sum the firm paid Earthlink to acquire the network, reports Philly.com.
Network Acquisition Co. took over the ailing Philadelphia WiFi network in June, 2008. While EarthLink charged residents $20/month for Wi-Fi access, NAC is providing it free in public areas. That spurred a temporary surge in usage to 28,0000 unique users per weekday. The Philadelphia WiFi network topped out at about 6,000 paying customers.
Earthlink was looking for a last-mile solution. The cable and DSL duopoly was pricing them out of business. Earthlink’s municipal wireless system promised to revolutionize city-wide broadband and triggered a short-lived global movement for municipal WiFi. But the cost of thousand of nodes, backhaul, reliability and penetration disappointed both Earthlink and users.
Now the city of Philadelphia is exercising an option in their August 2009 agreement, and will acquire the network with the goal of creating a public safety and municipal wireless network. Stimulus funding is apparently playing a role.
If the current project comes to fruition, it will still fall short of the city’s ambitious 2004 plans to roll out Wi-Fi Internet service to everyone in town.
The city plans to use $1.5 million in federal homeland security grants and $500,000 from the public-safety capital budget. Although free Internet access will still be available to the public in some areas, the city intends to use the network principally for official business, such as expanding its web of surveillance cameras and giving city workers the ability to file reports and access data from the field, reports Philly.com. But the network will require significant additional investment — some $17 million between fiscal 2011 and 2015, the administration predicted.
City Council approval will be required.
On the other hand, Clearwire is now available in Philadelphia (pop: 1,447,395). The company started selling services in the 6th largest city in the United States on Oct. 1st, 2009.
In Portland, Philadelphia, and elsewhere, Clear offers 768Kbps (unlimited) for $20/month.
Why would the city invest $17M in taxpayer funds in a failed WiFi network? The infrastructure is there, and the bandwidth could be utilized. But Homeland Security bucks will likely target neighborhood cameras, not free WiFi.
Still, police and fire departments may not be enthusiastic about funding politically motivated Wi-Fi projects out of their budgets. Mobile WiMAX laptops and phones, offered by Clear, Sprint and Comcast in Philadelphia, may deliver more bang for the buck — without spending $17 million. So Wireless Philadelphia may not be out of the woods yet.
In June 2008 Earthlink pulled the plug on its experiment with municipal WiFi across the country. Earthlink sold its system to the locally owned Network Acquisition Company last year.
Five years ago, before the network was built, Mayor John F. Street attracted international attention with his goal of making Philadelphia the world’s largest hot spot. Earthlink was selected to build the network, but even after that firm invested $17 million, service was spotty in large sections of the city and virtually nonexistent inside buildings.
DailyWireless has more than 650 related Municipal Wireless stories including; Philadelphia: On Again?, Wireless Philadelphia: Born Again?, Earthlink to Philly: We’re Outta Here, Philadelphia WiFi Network To Shut Down June 12, MetroFi Vs Portland, EarthLink’s Old Milpitas Network Now Free, Minneapolis WiFi Breaks Even, A MuniFi Roundup, Muni-Fi’s Got Trouble, Who the MuniFi MAN?, Municipal WiFi: What Would You Do?, Wireless Silicon Valley: Would You Believe a Dozen Hotspots in San Carlos?, Clearwire in Portland, WiMAX Speed Test in Portland – 10 Mbps, Free Grass Roots Wi-Fi: It Works in Portland, Starbucks Adds AT&T Wi-Fi, Dvorak: Muni WiFi Will Die, and Minneapolis Bridge Collapse & Emergency Communications.
