Picking up on Mitch’s hope that efforts by Google and EarthLink and others to mount muni-Wi-Fi could stave off distorting net neutrality regulations, Richard Greenfield of Pali Research circulated today slides that EarthLink used during its recent analysts day to promote its wireless initiatives. The slides contain a lot of useful information, not the least of which is just how optimistic EarthLink is regarding the money that can be made with muni-Wi-Fi.
EarthLink is targeting operating break-even for its Wi-Fi builds at one to two years, with gross margins of 79% for retail offerings and 58% for wholesale services. The ISP thinks that municipal Wi-Fi is a $15 billion market.
Like Greenfield, I’m not as optimistic as EarthLink. In his note accompanying the slides, Greenfield said “We remain skeptical that Muni Wi-Fi, in general, will live up to bandwidth expectations – particularly given the increasingly congested nature of unlicensed wi-fi spectrum.”
But the slides do provide a useful look at EarthLink’s municipal strategy and spell out the markets where EarthLink has either won the Wi-Fi contract or has submitted an RFP or plans to respond to an RFP. More interesting still are the targeted markets where EarthLink hopes to bid on a muni-contract (see table below.)
| EarthLink’s Muni-Wi-Fi Efforts | |||
| City | Status | City | Status |
| Anaheim | Selected | Los Angeles | Target |
| Arlington | Finalist | Miami | Target |
| Atlanta | Target | Milwaukee | RFP Issued |
| Aurora | RFP Issued | Minneapolis | Finalist |
| Baltimore | Target | New Orleans | Target |
| Boston | Target | New York | Target |
| Brookline | Finalist | Oakland | Target |
| Chicago | Target | Omaha | Target |
| Cleveland | Target | Pasadena | RFP Issued |
| Columbus | Target | Philadelphia | Selected |
| Dallas | Target | Pittsburgh | RFP Issued |
| Denver | RFP Issued | Portland | Finalist |
| Detroit | Target | Sacramento | Target |
| Grand Rapids | RFP Issued | San Diego | Target |
| Honolulu | Target | San Francisoc | RFP Issued |
| Houston | Target | San Jose | Target |
| Las Vegas | Target | Seattle | Target |
| Long Beach | RFP Issued | ||
Cynthia Brumfield at 9:16 AM|Comments(0)
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