Municipal wi-fi fails in some cities, but thrives in some smaller towns

While plans to create city-wide wireless networks fizzled in places such as San Francisco and Chicago, hundreds of small towns found ways to make the idea work, reports Chris Gaylord of The Christian Science Monitor.

With the struggles of Earthlink, a key player in municipal wireless, and mounting logistical problems, projects in major cities were derailed, Gaylord writes. St. Cloud, Fla., however, has just 28,000 residents as well as the nation's only network with 100 percent service availability. All at no additional cost to residents. St. Cloud, though, is the ideal situation nationally, as "very few can pull off a free network," Gaylord writes. "Instead, communities are looking to partner with a company that will build the network and run a subscription service off the Wi-Fi hubs," he explains.

This model is proving to be successful in small communities such as Owensboro, Ky., Rio Rancho, N.M., and Kutztown, Pa. The addition of the Wi-Fi networks have proved beneficial to local business and have helped streamline some municipal work. Still, even some small communities have made the multi-million dollar investment and been burned. (Read more)