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Municipal Wi-Fi sustains fatal blow with likely loss of MetroFi

By Tim Conneally, BetaNews

May 16, 2008, 3:50 PM

After scrapping its citywide Wi-Fi deployment project for Portland, Oregon, municipal wireless company MetroFi is planning to liquidate its network assets or close down entirely.

In addition to Portland, MetroFi has free, ad-supported networks in place in Concord, Cupertino, Foster City, Riverside, San Jose, Santa Clara, and Sunnyvale, California as well as Aurora, Illinois. In a private e-mail from MetroFi CEO Chuck Haas to Wi-Fi Networking News editor Glenn Fleischman, he says if no buyers turn up for these networks, his company will gradually shut them down.

Now, with all of Earthlink's deployments overturned, there is no question that muni-Wi-Fi as it was originally conceived is completely finished. On almost a weekly basis, more reports surface of cities either reclaiming their networks, or shelving future plans for them. Boulder, Colorado is unsteady, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania will not provide funding, and Milpitas, California has taken theirs back and stripped it down. The list is long, and few of the results actually reflect the networks' initially intended purpose.

In all likelihood, with the gradual exit of the bigger muni-Wi-Fi companies, the technology will not disappear altogether, but will settle into niches where it is a cost-effective solution to providing a broader swath of coverage: in small communities, and in public security networks.

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By jcaldwell@usinternet.com

edited May 25, 2008 - 1:56 AM

Minneapolis city wide WIFI network is alive and kicking, it is also cash flow positive. Muni WIFI is far from dead, the old business models of "Free" are dead.
"Free" models have never worked and will never work.

Score: 0

By daq

posted May 19, 2008 - 12:04 PM

Why waste money implementing wifi when cellular network is already available? It's getting faster every day and in my experience has been extremely reliable. Its also available everywhere you have cellphone reception and not limited to specific cities.

Score: 0

By God Dammit

posted May 19, 2008 - 1:50 PM

Accessing the internet through a cellular phone network is extremely expensive. Most carriers charge $60-$100 per month in addition to your voice plan if you want unlimited internet access. Even then, some carriers like Verizon Wireless put limits on how much you can use the internet.

Score: 0

By mjm01010101

posted May 16, 2008 - 4:09 PM

As a Portland resident, I shrug. Metrofi's signal was always the weakest, slowest, most pathetic in any hood you would realistically use it. As I type this metrofi's free AP comes in at the lowest signal.

Our city best not pick up the tab on this. It's junk.

Score: 0

By God Dammit

posted May 18, 2008 - 2:13 AM

If Portland had decided to fund the Wi-Fi network it probably would have gotten better since there would have been more money to add additional equipment to boost signal strength. Wireless internet access in some form should be just as common as a public utility in every single city in the USA. Hopefully the new standard for wireless networking and internet access, WiMax, gets off the ground soon.

Score: 0

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