Chicago: The Latest Muni Wi-Fi Casualty

Chicago: The Latest Muni Wi-Fi Casualty

August 30, 2007

Citywide Wi-Fi projects continue to collapse. Chicago’s plan is the latest casualty in what has become something of a national trend lately. The Windy City said on Wednesday it would be curtailing its citywide broadband wireless network as officials were unable to hammer out a mutually beneficial deal with AT&T and Earthlink–the two companies originally vying to build the wireless network.

As for Earthlink, the company’s recent troubles have been well documented, and the bottom line in most of these cases seems to be that the original build-out models were excessively optimistic. “Chicago officials had intended that the city would offer infrastructure, but no cash, to a carrier that would use its own funds to build the network here,” an article in the Chicago Tribute said yesterday. “EarthLink and AT&T submitted proposals to the city, but after months of negotiations the parties were unable to reach agreement.”