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Chicago Scraps Plans for Citywide Wi-Fi Network

6:30 am on August 30, 2007 | Category: Internet, Telecom Services, Wi-Fi, WiMAX, Wireless Technology

An ambitious plan to blanket the city of Chicago with Wi-Fi internet access was scrapped this week, primarily due to cost concerns as well as the lack of a proven business model for citywide Wi-Fi.

“We realized, after much consideration, that we needed to reevaluate our approach to provide universal and affordable access to high speed Internet as part of the city’s broader digital inclusion efforts,” said the city’s Chief Information Officer, Hardik Bhatt, in a statement Tuesday.

The proposed network would have ultimately covered Chicago’s 228 square miles with wireless internet access, through one or more private-sector partnerships. Negotiations with potential partners have stalled in recent months, however, due to the realization that a citywide network would require massive taxpayer financing to get off the ground.

One of the companies negotiating with Chicago was EarthLink, an Atlanta, Georgia-based ISP, which has already won several municipal Wi-Fi contracts and deployed a number of networks across America. This summer, EarthLink said that it planned to better study the performance of its current municipal Wi-Fi networks before embarking on any additional projects.

“We’re seeing this evolve as we learn more about these networks, and the city needs to think about this again from its own business perspective,” said EarthLink’s vice president of municipal sales, Tom Hulsebosch, in an interview with the Chicago Tribune.

All is not lost of Chicago wireless broadband enthusiasts, however, with the city set to house one of America’s first citywide WiMAX networks. Cell phone carrier, Sprint Nextel, has announced that Chicago will be among the first three markets for its forthcoming WiMAX broadband network.

WiMAX works along similar principles to Wi-Fi, but is much more efficient, potentially blanketing whole municipalities with broadband internet service from a single base station.

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