St. Louis WiFi plan too ambitious for AT&T

According to an Associated Press report, AT&T (NYSE: T) is redesigning a plan to engulf St. Louis in WiFi signals after finding no suitable power source and determining that the project could never recoup its own costs. The original plan to cover the city's 62 square miles has been reduced to a "pilot project" in downtown St. Louis, set to be available early next year.

Plans called for the citywide wireless network to be up and running in two years, providing free internet service to residents for "20 hours a month and [to] charge for more time or higher download speeds." It was powering the transmitters that first caused the project to hit a roadblock (or air block?), with an estimate by engineers cited that the project would "require 50 transmitters per square mile." Other plans involved utilizing streetlights, but those transmitters would require batteries, apparently making the attempt unfeasible.

A citywide WiFi network sounds great, in simplest terms, but AT&T's inability to make the system work may leave it out of reach for the time being. I have to wonder what a citywide WiFi network would do to restaurants, coffee shops, book stores and other businesses that provide or charge for the service. The new network would simply add those stores already using AT&T's brand of WiFi, but what about other wireless carriers providing this kind of service? Would a citywide WiFi signal from AT&T disrupt existing signals from Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ)?