The “Muni WiFi” movement has been dealt a double blow with the collapse of its San Francisco and Chicago schemes to provide blanket wireless coverage.
The San Francisco scheme – which fell apart on Wednesday night after Earthlink, the internet service provider, said it was pulling out of a contract to build the city’s WiFi network – was one of the most high-profile in the country because of the involvement of Google. The internet company was planning to subsidise a free-access option for users in exchange for including advertising in the service.
