The basic problem is the cost per square mile was too high. To get anywhere near 100% indoor coverage required 40 AP's per sqare mile. With AP's costing $1500-$11000 and engineers starting out saying that only 16 AP's per square mile, companies got into it, found out service sucked, then added more AP"s. By the time they got it right, they were out of money at $100-$200K per square mile. There just wasn't enough market to support a multimillion capital expenditure. The trick is to do some actual RF engineering instead of listening to manufacturers and network engineers who had a 4 hour class and were now RF experts, as to how many AP's were really needed. Then do a real business model and quiti giving it away for free (Metrofi was the dumbest idea out there, free Wifi in exchange for reading ads which kept competitors out). With new AP's costing as little as $100 and 802.11N specifications, it's time for WiFi to come back.

There is nothing wrong with the concept of municipal Wifi. It even has the potential to succeed if people with the most basic concept of business sense and municipalities with employees that understand the concept of efficiency and profit and loss would actually work together. The first problem with Municipal Wifi was both the fault of government and Metrofi. Whoever came up with the idea of "free" Wifi or limited "free" Wifi should have been slapped immediately. nothing is free. Revenue needs to come from somewhere. We got out of the market when these financial brainiacs put this concept out. Every city wanted free. Now what they have is a bunch of companies out of business and a bad name. I don't see Qwest, Cox, Comcast, or any one of the other broadband companies being asked to give free service over wires. What I can't believe is that investors actually believed the financial fairy tale models that thought free anything or advertising revenue would pay for all this. PT Barnum was right. We just need to couch it in technical mumbo jumbo. The reality is that there are business models that make this a success. Efficiency improvements, better security options, and more capabilities easily cover a large percentage of the costs from a government side. From a private sector side, the old adage of "If you build it,they will come" stupdity didn't work for the fiber industry 20 years ago. However, I believe that there is a solution that I'm putting to the test. Only time will tell if I'm right.