Mobilepro Corp (fka MOBL)

[SeriousMoney]

Fast action important on wireless

Lincoln will have to move fast if it wants to stay up to speed with other cities that are setting up municipal wireless Internet networks.

It’s unclear at this point whether the advertising-based business model will succeed. MobilePro believes that the city of Sacramento’s expectations are unrealistic. “What the city wanted was out of the question,” Jay Wright, MobilePro’s chief executive officer told the Wall Street Journal.

But the business model seems to be gaining momentum. In Sunnyvale, Calif., wireless Internet provider MetroFi made the switch on its own, reasoning that it would attract subscriptions more quickly. The company, however, declined to say whether it is making a profit.

In San Francisco, Google and Earthlink have teamed to offer a hybrid service in which users of free wireless Internet get slower speeds than paying customers.

In Portland, users can choose either free wireless Internet with a half-inch banner in their browser, or pay $19.95 a month for service without the ads.

Insistence by Sacramento city officials on free wireless Internet has dealt a setback to its plans. MobilePro has dropped out and city officials will have to restart the bidding process.

Meanwhile municipal wireless networks are multiplying. Boulder, Colo., Minneapolis, Madison, Wis., are among the more than 250 cities that have deployed or are planning to deploy municipal wireless networks.

If Lincoln doesn’t move quickly, Nebraska’s capital city will find itself falling behind.

http://www.journalstar.com/articles/2006/06/26/editorial_main/doc449dd2c276876652132559.txt