With the massive restructuring at EarthLink (NASDAQ: ELNK), one of the casualties is municipal Wi-Fi. The company was a backer of a roll-out in San Francisco – along with Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) – and in Houston.Yes, free Wi-Fi can be a boon for cities, such as in terms of bringing in new business. However, it's not easy to pull off.
So, might the actions of EarthLink mean the death knell to the movement?
I had a chance to interview Craig Settles, who is an expert on muni Wi-Fi and the author of Fighting the Good Fight for Municipal Wireless.
According to him:
"Last week's string of announcements by EarthLink serve as a huge exclamation point on the reality of where we are with the muni wireless trend - no more free lunch courtesy of the vendor community. What started off as a good idea, a marketing loss leader of building Philly's network for free because if was such a high-profile city in muni wireless at the time, created a Frankenstein as almost every city in America then wanted the same thing.
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