A permitting glitch is preventing people who live near the city's lakes from accessing the muni Wi-Fi network.

WiFi took a hit at the beginning of the year as EarthLink and MetroFi pulled the plug on their muni-WiFi initiatives, but as 2008 comes to a close, WiFi has permeated several parts of the industry. The muni-WiFi business is bouncing back in cities where network operators are working with more sensible business models that include local government anchor tenants and/or a few other high-user tenants...

Free muni WiFi is alive in Solon, Ohio, as Radiant Networks and Proxim Wireless have joined forces to provide residents there with free WiFi access within the city's new community center and throughout public parks. Solon wants to lure companies into the community and offer existing businesses the free service. The multipoint network was built with a single tower in the middle of th...

Just when it seemed the free muni-WiFi model was dead, buried, kaput, outtahere, Meraki resurfaced at a press conference with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom to say that it would team up with the city to bring free Internet access to 12 low-income housing projects in the Tenderloin as well as provide free WiFi to senior centers throughout the city by the end of the year. Meraki is building a city...

The muni-WiFi network in Milpitas, Calif. that was abandoned by EarthLink, will have another chance to offer free WiFi as the city is negotiating an agreement with Silicon Valley Unwired to take over the network and offer free service to the city. Silicon Valley Unwired will include Google, I-Net Solutions, the city of Milpitas and several wireless manufacturers. Milpitas owns the networ...

A citywide muni-WiFi network in Tempe, Ariz., that went dark months ago is drawing attention from Computers and Tele-Comm (CTC), which runs wireless networks in the Kansas city area and in the Hilton and Hyatt hotel chains. CTC has asked Tempe's city council to consider such a deal, but it wants some concessions.  For example, the contract's penalty for failure to provide servi...

The Milledgeville, Ga., city council has voted to contract with Clearwire for a muni-WiMAX network as an outgrowth of Clearwire's efforts to build WiMAX in nearby Atlanta. In 2006, Milledgeville received an $862,000 grant from the Georgia Technology Authority through the Wireless Communities Georgia program to turn the city into one of several model communities to show the benefits of using wirele

Municipal Wi-Fi vendor MetroFi Inc. appears to be pulling out of the game. According to the company's Web site, it is shutting down all but two of the ad-supported wireless networks it operates in a handful of cities in Oregon, California and Illinois. ... - Allie Winter

Philadelphia's mayor is expected to announce today the 11th-hour save of the city's muni-WiFi network, which was shut down by EarthLink. According to industry analyst Craig Settles, head of Successful.com, Councilman Bill Green felt the network was a vital asset to the city so he initiated contact with potential investors back in May. Private investors structured a deal in which they are creating

The muni-WiFi space took another hit today with news that MetroFi, a WiFi firm that provides free and premium WiFi service informed subscribers in many of its California markets that it will be ...