DaytonDailyNews.com

SAN FRANCISCO — By now, we were supposed to be well on our way to a WiFi world.

For several years, cities from Atlanta to San Francisco have been working on ways to make cheap — even free — wireless Internet service available to all their residents.

But many of those cities are now postponing, reconsidering or simply scuttling those plans.

Municipal WiFi providers that were supposed to help them — chief among them EarthLink Inc. — are pulling back or re-evaluating their businesses.

And the growth of privately run WiFi "hot spots," as well as Internet access through cell phones and new technologies such as WiMAX, are making citywide wireless service for consumers seem like a waste of time and money in some parts of the country.

So is muni WiFi dead? Not yet.

But "there's been a reality check," said Sally Cohen, an analyst with Forrester Research Inc.

"And it all stems around, 'What's the business model, and who's going to pay for it?'"

Not long ago, muni WiFi was all the rage.

By building citywide WiFi networks, tech companies promised, cities could bridge the digital divide between rich and poor, foster economic development, and improve communications for firefighters and police.

Cities could recoup the costs of such systems by charging users a fee for home service, much like they do for water or trash pickup, while providing free access in city buildings, parks and other common areas.

Even better, companies like Atlanta-based EarthLink were offering to build some city systems for next to nothing in return for the right to sell subscriptions.

But as is often the case with technology, muni WiFi hasn't lived up to the hype. Several big-city projects never got off the ground.

In some places where wide-scale projects did get up and running, users complained of lousy service and unreliability.

"I've been an unpopular person around here for the last four years or so because I've been saying, 'Wait, wait' " on a citywide wireless network, said Pete Collins, chief information officer for the city of Austin, Texas. But "thank God ... (city leaders) listened."

Austin installed a limited WiFi "mesh" in certain parts of the city — Zilker Park, Barton Springs and parts of downtown and East Austin.

But Collins said he didn't think spending $20 million or so for a citywide WiFi network or committing the city as a primary customer of a company like EarthLink made good financial sense.

"Even if I would've done this three years ago ... it would all be obsolete by now," Collins said. "Why make a huge investment that costs a lot of taxpayer money for something that's going to be obsolete" that quickly?

Privately financed WiFi is widespread

"Hot spots" at coffee shops, hotels, airports and elsewhere

Nationwide: 63,329

Georgia: 2,031 (Atlanta: 525)

Texas: 4,386 (Austin: 521)

Florida: 4,027 (Palm Beach/West Palm Beach: 71)

Ohio: 2,011 (Dayton: 49)

North Carolina: 1,742

Colorado: 1,261

Source: JiWire Inc.