EarthLink wins Philadelphia Wi-Fi contract
October 4th, 2005 12:19 PM | by Christen da Costa
The city of Philadelphia has awarded EarthLink the contract to blanket Wi-Fi access across 135 miles of the city. They beat out proposals from companies such as Hewlett-Packard.
The contract will include EarthLink funding and building the wireless network. The company will also share in the revenue (residents can expect around $20 / month) with the city’s Wireless Philadelphia project. The project’s goal will be to get computers into every household.
The WiFi network will initially start with a test phase consisting of 15 square miles. Once the proof of concept works, EarthLink will cover the rest of the city in glorious Wi-Fi.
While Wireless Philadelphia won’t be free like Google’s Wi-Fi bid for San Francisco, they will offer discounts to low income families. Monthly fees will be as low as $10 / month. Compare this to Verizon’s EV-DO which costs $70 /month. Not too bad.
Read More: Sprint To Launch XOHM WiMAX Network In September, Verizon Makes Month-To-Month Official, Vodafone Announces Blackberry Storm Price: £0,
March 8th, 2006 at 4:59 pm
[...] With big cities like San Francisco and Philadelphia contracting companies to build Wi-Fi networks, where do you think the largest Wi-Fi network is? Why it’s in rural Oregon of course! Across the dry and desolate terrain is a 700 square mile Wi-Fi network. Wireless entrepreneur Fred Ziari built the network for around $5 million. [...]