News

Philadelphia's Wi-Fi network threatened with shutdown

By Ed Oswald | Published May 12, 2008, 3:13 PM

EarthLink attempted to give Philadelphia a deadline of last Thursday to hand over control of its municipal wireless network in order to shut it down gracefully, however the city has so far pushed back the effort.

Wireless Philadelphia, the non-profit group tasked with management of the network, said that the service continues to operate across the city. It argues that EarthLink has no right to set any type of deadline for a handover, or shut the network off.

EarthLink stopped accepting new customers last week. The two sides have been in discussions about a transition, but so far have not come to any type of agreement. The city had attempted to find a new operator for the network, but deals there had also fallen through.

New Orleans is facing a similar fate: its Wi-Fi network will shut down May 18 because EarthLink could not find someone to take over the daily operation.

Philly mayor Michael Nutter has expressed support to keep the network running, which Wireless Philadelphia applauded. "We are extremely grateful to Mayor Nutter and the Nutter Administration for the aggressive efforts they are making along with us to find a replacement for EarthLink and to breathe new life into this vital project," it said in a statement.

The organization later said that it would not discuss any negotiations currently in progress.

Comments

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melkor
May 13, 2008 - 9:17 AM

Comcast doesn't want to take over because it would undercut their own internet access offerings. The wifi service offers affordable high speed internet access to those who can't afford to pay Comcast's excessive rates. Verizon won't run it for much the same reason, they are trying to push FiOS. Frankly I wouldn't be surprised if Comcast and Verizon weren't putting pressure on EarthLink to get out of the game. Might have been ten years ago that one of the DSL companies went under because Verizon had been calling their tech support pretending to be customers in need of tech support, racking up the phone bill and the tech support hours.

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DraconPern
May 13, 2008 - 1:02 AM

No one wants to take over because no one wants to pay for it.

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Michael.Hatamoto
May 12, 2008 - 9:41 PM

Another municipal WiFi project about to bite the dust? What a shock...

I am curious about why Comcast isn't going to pick up the project, and just e-mailed them to find out their thoughts on the possible demise of a Philly WiFi network.

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treworld
May 12, 2008 - 5:19 PM

I don't understand... Philly is Comcast's HQ. Why don't Comcast take it over???

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