News EarthLink scraps city-wide Wi-Fi, cuts jobs

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2007/08/31/earthlink_scraps_city-wide_wi-fi_cuts_jobs/1

EarthLink loses deals with two major US cities to provide city-wide Wi-Fi coverage after cutting 900 jobs from its workforce.

 

I think city-wide wi-fi would be nice for basic things such as internet. The amount of traffic during peak hours would bog down the connection to make gaming and downloading unbearable, so private connections would still be needed and used by those who could afford the privilege to have such a thing. Ever since I got a laptop, I upgraded to wireless in my apartment. It is nice to walk where ever in the place and open up a web-page. I think city-wide wi-fi should be implemented because not everyone wants to walk down to Starbucks and buy a coffee just to use the internet. (And there has been a case of a guy in New Jersey who was arrested because he used the "free wi-fi" outside of a cafe for six months but never bought a single item from the place.) I think the convenience of having wi-fi in virtually every part of the city is something that shouldn't be just shrugged off. Right now the next closest thing are the premium Sprint and Verizion PCMCIA cards that allow you to connect to the internet for $70.00+ a month. Which I think is just ridiculous. I pay $50.00 now and that's for a basic phone line and unlimited broadband wireless. As I said, city-wide wi-fi probably won't draw in the gamers and the file sharers, but for those who never had internet, and for those who spend alot of time commuting on the subway, or for those that would just like to load a page while sitting in a park, or whatever: I think it would be a wonderful idea.

(PS: First post.)

 

"our market is dissapearing, lets cut our workforce to combat the problem"

 

that is a common tactic these days....