The problem was that Earthlink had a great way to convince cities to buy into it. It required cities to do NOTHING, promising added infrastructure.
Thereby the politicians signed away bandwidth rights and patted themselves on the back for 'creating' a free WiFi system that will extend into poverty stricken neighborhoods and lift city into a new era of understanding and enlightenment...
When the financial and advertising model didn't pan out, Earthlink went crying back to the cities and started asking for money.
The politicians who were busy slapping themselves on the back on what a great (non)job they did, quietly changed the agreement
That's when the 'free' service (and infrastructure) became a low cost pay service.
It was all downhill from there.
Worst of all, instead of installing the equipment in the poorer neighborhoods, they installed the system in center city. Ask a poor kid with a hand me down pc if slow internet is better than no internet... Good job (ex) Mayor Street, you managed screwed over your constituents even after you left office!
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The problem was that Earthlink had a great way to convince cities to buy into it. It required cities to do NOTHING, promising added infrastructure.
Thereby the politicians signed away bandwidth rights and patted themselves on the back for 'creating' a free WiFi system that will extend into poverty stricken neighborhoods and lift city into a new era of understanding and enlightenment...
When the financial and advertising model didn't pan out, Earthlink went crying back to the cities and started asking for money.
The politicians who were busy slapping themselves on the back on what a great (non)job they did, quietly changed the agreement
That's when the 'free' service (and infrastructure) became a low cost pay service.
It was all downhill from there.
Worst of all, instead of installing the equipment in the poorer neighborhoods, they installed the system in center city. Ask a poor kid with a hand me down pc if slow internet is better than no internet...
Good job (ex) Mayor Street, you managed screwed over your constituents even after you left office!