Last minute save keeps Philly Wi-Fi alive

A group of private equity investors has rescued the municipal Wi-Fi network in Philadelphia, the city announced yesterday.
The situation has been closely watched due to the failure of a number of other, high-profile, municipal Wi-Fi programs launched by EarthLink Inc., including ones in San Francisco and New Orleans. EarthLink had warned last month that it could not afford to run the Philly network, that it couldn’t find any buyers for it, and would shut it down.
The Philadelphia deal’s terms were not made available, but investors included two directors of Boathouse Communications Partners L.L.C., entrepreneur Richard Rasansky and Tom Knox, a former candidate for mayor of Philadelphia. The group is known as NAC L.L.C. and will take over the network from EarthLink, which had built the network but never garnered the paid subscriptions it sought to finance it.
Philadelphia had committed to a Wi-Fi network in 2006 in an effort to connect all its citizens to the Internet. But, as of May, EarthLink had only 5,000 subscribers at $20 per month, where it had once sought 100,000.
The network’s new owners will finish building out the network and offer citizens free, advertising-supported Wi-Fi access, while seeking out large businesses and institutions for a paid, integrated wireless/wireline service.
“This is an important first step to reducing the digital divide,” said Mayor Michael Nutter.
EarthLink’s chairman and CEO, Rolla Huff said “we believe this is a positive outcome for our shareholders and the Philadelphia community.”
Meanwhile, Oklahoma City just turned on its own Wi-Fi network, which is only available to municipal employees.