Bye-bye Wi-Fi

KPRC-2 reports that Houston's deal with Earthlink for city-wide wi-fi is a no-go:

A public wireless network for the city of Houston is apparently dead, KPRC Local 2 reported Wednesday.

EarthLink, the company that was supposed to set up the Wi-Fi network, announced it is not doing that type of service anymore.

[snip]

"They had a change in their corporate leadership, looked at the business model and for whatever reasons decided they couldn't make it work financially," said Frank Michele with the mayor's office.

"For whatever reasons" is pretty funny. Government, of course, doesn't have to work under the constraints of a business model (as evidenced by the light rail boondoggle), so the notion that something could cost more money than it would bring in, and that outcome might not be good business, is mysterious reasoning to the mayor's spokesman.

But don't cry for Houston -- the mayor got $5 million out of Earthlink before the deal went kablooey.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/23/07 10:51 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Sphere | Comments (7)

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