its easy to diss on earthlink and the failed philly wifi initiative but history shows this is a huge undertaking. if silicon valley couldnt pull it off i think that should raise an alarm. covad, a major provider of bandwith, is “is hoping to cover one square mile of downtown San Carlos, California for three months, and during the test period it will gauge just how lucrative such an initiative is.” the key word being lucrative. providing wifi isnt cheap but being a bandwith provider already i think should help things along. as scary as this is to say, who in philly is in the position to pick up philly wifi and run with it? comcast? verizon? both very hated companies in the region.. should be interesting especially with the wide roll out already in place in philly who will come and rescue the project.