City In New Talks About Wi-Fi

Doug Oliver, Mayor Nutter's spokesman, this afternoon confirmed a report by the Associated Press that the city is engaged in new discussions with a group to take over the wireless Internet service created by EarthLink for Wireless Philadelphia.

"Unfortunately I can't talk about it at all," Oliver told PhillyClout after confirming the talks are still ongoing.

EarthLink's network covers about 80 percent of the city but the company last month asked a federal judge to break its 10-year contract with the city. EarthLink, which complains that it never attracted enough customers and is losing $200,000 a month, asked the judge for permission to pull down the equipment that broadcasts the Internet signal to subscribers.  The company wanted to dismantle the system starting Thursday.

The city was in negotiations last month to have a Cleveland-based non-profit take over the system but those talks broke down.