Chris Satullo: Don't give up on Wireless Philadelphia

Whither Wireless Philadelphia?

Let's pray its fate is not: Wither, Wireless Philadelphia.

The nonprofit grew out of a fetching vision: Take a city with a huge digital divide, half its households strangers to the Internet. Use a partnership with a visionary company to propel it to the front of the connected pack.

Employ a then-new technology called wireless fidelity, or Wi-Fi, to make the Internet available citywide for a small upfront investment and moderate fee. Bring the excluded into the digital fold through a "citizen's triple play": a free laptop and cheap Wi-Fi access bundled with training in how to use the Internet to enhance learning, job skills, quality of life. Create outdoor "hot spots" where young techies and eager tourists could grab the Internet out of the ether for free.

All this was to be made possible by EarthLink, an Internet service provider that needed to diversify as dial-up went the way of the Conestoga wagon. To snare a big, flashy client it could build upon, EarthLink was willing to offer Philadelphia a sweetheart deal. It would build the network at its expense, and subsidize low-income access while selling service to regular customers.

This initiative brought Mayor John F. Street some rare good ink in his second term. Here was dowdy Philadelphia getting out on the edge, living up to its "Next Great City" buzz. It seemed almost too good to be true.

Let me give you two seconds to figure out what comes next.

After months of rumblings, EarthLink has confirmed that it is fleeing the municipal Wi-Fi sector. The founding CEO, whose vision this was, died. The road to Wi-Fi heaven proved bumpy. It took way more transmitters on utility poles than expected to spread the signal around big, old Philly, doubling the cost.

Only 80 percent of the city is covered (sorry, Northwest and Northeast), and if you live above the third floor anywhere, lots of luck. EarthLink signed up about 10,000 customers for its service, which is perkier than dial-up but slower than Comcast cable or Verizon fiber optic. Its marketing paled next to the vivid brands of the local behemoths.

For the Wireless Philly nonprofit, the beauty part had been that - with a corporation building, marketing and operating the network, it could focus on its civic mission of digital inclusion. Wireless Philly partnered with nonprofits to offer about a thousand of its laptop/access/training "bundles" as a life-changing incentive to people such as welfare-to-work moms and ex-offenders.

Now the beauty part has become a beast. Wireless Philly, with its small staff, isn't set up to run the network itself. EarthLink says it has given the city a "go-forward plan," but offers no details. Greg Goldman, the energetic CEO of Wireless Philly, says trying to force EarthLink to stay is futile: "Look, one company got out of Wi-Fi. That's disappointing - but, so what now? Philadelphia, for once, was in the vanguard of something. Let's not give up. We still have this amazing opportunity through this $20 million EarthLink invested, without the city having had to risk a thing."

A Wi-Fi network is a terrible thing to waste, even one off to a creaky start. To-do list: Negotiate a fair exit for EarthLink. Waste little time seeking a corporate replacement; none may exist. Instead, dream a new dream. Devise a new public-private partnership to run this network for multiple purposes. City Hall must be a player, but so should anyone with a stake in the many goals Wireless Philly could further - not just digital inclusion, but tourism, education, "brain gain," job training, community building, emergency services.

The Nutter administration, heaping its plate with audacious goals, hasn't focused on Wi-Fi. Understandable. But a City Hall on fire to provide more agile and accountable city services might look at what other cities are achieving as the "anchor tenant" of a Wi-Fi network. Look to Corpus Christi, Texas, where the government uses its Wi-Fi network to read utility meters, get instant field reports from inspectors, and enhance emergency communications (a huge need here).

Imagine a Philly where every civic association used a handheld Wi-Fi device to file on-the-spot reports to City Hall about illegal housing conversions, trash-strewn lots, traffic lights on the fritz, etc. Imagine a city where Wi-Fi nurtured a community media network, distributing everything from homegrown documentaries on local issues to a schedule for delivering meals to elderly neighbors.

Mayor Nutter might be tempted to dismiss Wi-Fi as a Street thing, a dead letter written by his rival. But here's another way to look at it: Nutter can be the savior of a fumbled, cutting-edge initiative, yielding huge benefits for his agenda.

Kind of hard to resist, isn't it, Mr. Mayor?