A new effort is underway in the city of Philadelphia for a project which will cover the entire city with free Wi-Fi network. The reachable wireless access area will be enough to cover 135 square miles, and if all goes well it will be the largest in scale wireless network in the U.S. This project was initially launched in 2005, but came a step before its cancellation when the company that undertook the installation of satellite dishes has decided to withdraw.

In 2005 only 6,000 users had registered to get the wireless access service [in a city of 1.4 million people], which led to the withdrawal of EarthLink from offering the service. The mayor of the city, Michael Nutter, said recently that although the city does not spend the citizens’ money for the deployment of the wireless network, it is important to revive the program in order to help the further development of the city. The new group of investors is very optimistic that ultimately the wi-fi project will be completed.