Philadelphia Experiment With Municipal Wi-Fi Not Working Out So Well

TLF's Adam Thierer notes an update on the city's flailing city-run wifi project in the Philadephia Business Journal:

The city of Philadelphia said Wednesday it intends to purchase, for $2 million, the wireless network constructed by EarthLink Inc. to turn the entire city into a Wifi hotspot. The city said it intends to exercise an option in an agreement signed in August to buy the network from Network Acquisition Co. LLC, which took the network over from Atlanta-based EarthLink (NASDAQ:ELNK) in June 2008.

As Thierer comments, "In other words, taxpayers are stuck picking up the tab for this failed experiment and now have to hope that the city can somehow manage it into profitability."

I noted city-run wi-fi's history of failure here. More from Reason on government's attempts to run and regulate the Internet here.