ATLANTA-EarthLink Inc. is storming ahead with its Wi-Fi broadband network rollouts, announcing a contract to blanket the 50-square-mile city of Anaheim, Calif., with the state’s largest municipal Wi-Fi network.
EarthLink said the network would provide inexpensive, high-speed Internet access to Anaheim’s 345,000 residents and 2,077 city employees.
“This is only the first step toward making Anaheim a truly wireless city and I am thrilled that we, as a city, will soon have this amenity available to our residents, businesses and visitors,” said Curt Pringle, mayor of Anaheim. “By offering innovations such as wireless high-speed broadband connectivity with a quality provider such as EarthLink, I believe you will see other high-tech businesses use Anaheim as a test-bed for their emerging technology as well.”
EarthLink said the Wi-Fi network will be “open access” so that multiple, competing providers can offer their services to consumers and businesses.
“The city of Anaheim is one of the premier destinations for business and pleasure on the West Coast, and deploying citywide wireless broadband only reinforces this image to residents and visitors,” said Donald Berryman, president of Municipal Networks at EarthLink. “This solution will provide an alternative to traditional high-speed Internet offerings and give users an affordable option to stay connected no matter when and no matter where they are in Anaheim.”
EarthLink said it expects to roll out Anaheim’s Wi-Fi network by the fourth quarter of next year, the same timeframe the company gave for its Wi-Fi rollout in Philadelphia. EarthLink won a hard-fought battle against Hewlett-Packard Co. for Philadelphia’s municipal Wi-Fi contract.
Undoubtedly, EarthLink will be busy in 2006.
