http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,136593-c,wirelesstechnologyservices/article.html

"EarthLink Inc.'s current contract to build a municipal Wi-Fi network in San Francisco appears to be dead following a restructuring of the struggling Internet service provider.

The deal, hammered out in months of negotiations last year and completed in January, calls for EarthLink to build a citywide network at no cost to the city and sell high-speed service to residents while Google Inc. provides a free, slower service over the same network. But after announcing layoffs of nearly half its workforce and a gloomier financial forecast, EarthLink said Wednesday it won't invest any more money in that business model..............
"All that hoopla over 'free' basically set that whole trend back from where it would have been if cooler heads had prevailed in 2006," Settles said. He blames Google and network provider Metro-Fi for overhyping the free Wi-Fi idea.

"Cold water needs to be thrown on some faces," Settles said. "

I wonder what Google is going to do now?

Whoops.. i see someone already mentioned it.

http://blogoscoped.com/forum/107099.html

Sorry.