May 14th, 2008
City walks away from $17m network
Who wants a free Wi-Fi network? Not Philadelphia. After Earthlink pulled out of Philly Wireless Tuesday, the city wants no part of the network.
Apparently Earthlink had been negotiating with the city and nonprofits groups to to hand the $17 million network over but couldn’t come to an agreement.
The bottom line was the bottom line, PC World reports.
Without going into details, city spokesman Oliver said there clearly were maintenance and upgrading challenges that came with the free infrastructure. “How many times has someone not taken $17 million worth of something without there being a pretty good reason?” he said.
Meanwhile, Earthlink wants a court to establish a $1 million liability limitation and affirm its rights to take down the network.
“No one was willing to accept the wireless network and the liability that goes with it, both financially and operationally,” the city’s Oliver said.
