Philly Picks EarthLink to Build Wi-Fi Network

Alan Breznick, Cable/Video Practice Leader, Light Reading

October 5, 2005

1 Min Read
Philly Picks EarthLink to Build Wi-Fi Network

EarthLink has beaten out Hewlett-Packard for the right to build Philadelphia's proposed wireless broadband network. Wireless Philadelphia, the non-profit group setting up the citywide Wi-Fi network, chose the Atlanta-based ISP Tues. to construct and run what will be the nation's largest municipal Wi-Fi network. Under the contract, EarthLink will develop a 135-square-mile, city-wide Wi-Fi mesh network for Philadelphia, with service starting next fall. EarthLink will absorb the estimated $10 million to $15 million cost of the network and share revenue with Wireless Philadelphia. The company plans to charge about $20 a month to most users, although discounted service will be available to some city residents for as little as $10 a month. The winning EarthLink bid for the Philadelphia Wi-Fi network comes as Google hogs attention for its proposal to offer free wireless service in San Francisco. EarthLink is one of several other companies competing for the right to build a low-cost wireless network in that city.

About the Author(s)

Alan Breznick

Cable/Video Practice Leader, Light Reading

Alan Breznick is a business editor and research analyst who has tracked the cable, broadband and video markets like an over-bred bloodhound for more than 20 years.

As a senior analyst at Light Reading's research arm, Heavy Reading, for six years, Alan authored numerous reports, columns, white papers and case studies, moderated dozens of webinars, and organized and hosted more than 15 -- count 'em --regional conferences on cable, broadband and IPTV technology topics. And all this while maintaining a summer job as an ostrich wrangler.

Before that, he was the founding editor of Light Reading Cable, transforming a monthly newsletter into a daily website. Prior to joining Light Reading, Alan was a broadband analyst for Kinetic Strategies and a contributing analyst for One Touch Intelligence.

He is based in the Toronto area, though is New York born and bred. Just ask, and he will take you on a power-walking tour of Manhattan, pointing out the tourist hotspots and the places that make up his personal timeline: The bench where he smoked his first pipe; the alley where he won his first fist fight. That kind of thing.

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