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Chicago Cancels Plans for Free Wi-Fi

by Terrence O'Brien on August 30, 2007 at 01:22 PM

Free Wifi in Chicago on the Rocks
More bad news for proponents of municipal Wi-Fi networks: Chicago's free-wireless-for-the-citizens dreams have been put on hold. Early last year, Chicago embarked on a quest to become the latest big city in America to offer free Wi-Fi to its citizens. It seems, however, that negotiations broke down with potential partners EarthLink and AT&T.

The main point of contention, according to the Chicago Tribune, was that the city of Chicago wanted to provide the infrastructure and hand operations over to a private firm, while both AT&T and EarthLink wanted the city to pay them to build the system.

The Chicago cancellation comes close on the heels of the near collapse of San Francisco's Wi-Fi plans, the cancellation of municipal Wi-Fi projects in Alexandria and Arlington,Virginia, and EarthLink's decision to scale back its municipal Wi-Fi business. It seems that excitement for government-sponsored wireless projects is dwindling, which if you ask us, is a shame.

From BetaNews

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Tags: chicago, free, municipal, wi fi, wi-fi, WiFi

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