More news on free munipal WiFi, Earthlink and Google are teaming up again to bid on potential cities, similar to others, most notably the contract for San Francisco. A bit different from the original plan, ultimately they are looking at a paid half and a free half, with the free half being ad-supported (which is where Google steps in). The decision on where to go isn't made yet, and Google is being especially tight-lipped:
A Google spokeswoman released this statement, which was the same as one included in the article: "EarthLink has been a longtime partner of Google's and we look forward to working together to unwire San Francisco. We are open to considering other opportunities in this space with EarthLink but at this time remain focused on the Bay Area and have no specific plans to announce regarding a second city."
Ad-supported broadband is probably going to be very prevalent in the future, and likely companies that are getting their foot in the door now will be the big players. Turns out Google WiFi wasn't a myth after all.