Not so fast — it won’t be happening any time soon, the L.A. Times reports.
And L.A. isn’t the only place that may see its WiFi dreams put on hold:
The catalyst for the sudden retrenchment came last month when Internet service provider EarthLink Inc., the nation’s largest builder of municipal Wi-Fi networks, said it was halting work on such projects and bailing out of some contracts as part of a massive corporate restructuring.
The Atlanta company plans to complete construction in Anaheim and Philadelphia, the nation’s first major city to embrace broadband wireless, and operate those and a few other existing locations.
But EarthLink is stopping all new projects until it figures out a way to make money.
In San Francisco recently, I took advantage of the free WiFi in Union Square to update this blog. (It was at night, and crazy screaming guy walking around the park was definitely a little scary, but I got it done). It made me wonder whether L.A. at least had drips and drabs of a WiFi network.
The answer? It does, but it’s extremely limited: “Its 72 public libraries contain about 2,000 computers with Internet access as well as Wi-Fi hot spots for people with their own laptops. It also has free Wi-Fi service in Pershing Square downtown, Little Tokyo and the Van Nuys Civic Center,” the LAT writes.
Rather than focus too much time on the way too ambitious — and seemingly impossible — all-city WiFi plan (this is a big city, afterall), L.A. ought to first look at ways to get WiFi to more heavily trafficked areas. That’s a little more manageable.
