Had my hometown of Chicago gone through with their plan for city-wide municipal WiFi, I certainly would have entered the moniker "muni-ChiFi" in the inevitable naming contest that would ensue. Looks like I may never get the chance, though: the city of broad shoulders has rejected proposals from both EarthLink and AT&T [1], which means that it's back to the drawing board for muni-WiFi in Chicago. Apparently, Mayor Daley and friends balked at the idea of the city becoming a sort of "anchor tenant" for the network. While the city was willing to pitch in during the deployment process, it apparently refused to pay to use the network it would have helped to build. As Ars Technica points out, however, this sort of strategy has worked in other U.S. cities like Philadelphia--one of the few U.S. locales still on track to deploy a muni-WiFi network--as it helps offset the large deployment costs associated with muni-WiFi infrastructure.

Meanwhile, in San Francisco, yet another large scale muni-WiFi project is running into problems. Not too long ago, the project stalled when the city tried to change the terms of its contract with EarthLink. Ever since then, the proposed network has become a game of political hot potato, with no resolution in sight. With two of the most prominent deployments stalled and one of the most visible providers knocking on death's door [2], could there be any hope for the future of muni-WiFi?

- see this Ars Technica story [3]
- and this Editor's Corner [4] from FierceCIO