MobilePro, a provider of broadband wireless services, has announced that it's pulling out of a project to provide the city of Sacramento with wireless broadband.
Previously, MobilePro had won the bid to be the provider for the city-wide project. However, they since seem to have fallen out with city officials wanting to change how the company was going to provide the service. According to a MobilePro press release, following a "lengthy permitting process" the city gave MobilePro a counter proposal that, it seems, didn't shine for the company.
Initially, MobilePro was to provide a limited bandwidth service at no cost, with users desiring higher bandwidth required to pay a monthly fee. An alternative to this was to have the city be an "anchor tenant" to help fund the project. However, the city would rather see city-wide, high bandwidth broadband, supported purely by advertising. MobilePro don't think that's sustainable.
MobilePro does not believe that an advertising-supported business case is financially sustainable. At this time, we view such a restrictive economic model as incompatible with our original long-term plans for both the residents of Sacramento as well as the MobilePro stockholders.
MobilePro have wished Sacramento luck, but will be seeking to provide their services to other US municipalities.
City-wide WiFi access isn't a new concept, but as of yet, a solid model for its creation and use doesn't seem to have surfaced. Perhaps once Sacremento finds a company willing to follow its ideas, and MobilePro demonstrates how its service works on a large scale, along with city WiFi in other places, around the world too, we'll see whose residents are enjoying it the most (and who is making the most money out of it.)
