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More from the "You Get What You Pay For" File

Sometimes when I start a post, there are more titles that come to mind than insightful analysis. A sampling of aternate titles for this post that came to mind:

Anyone Who Is Surprised, Please Raise Your Hand

Beware Desperate Companies Offering Free Services

OK, Now What?

The Other Shoe Falls

So, after more analysis, EarthLink has decided to turn the faucet all the way off. What does this mean for the rest of us? Not much, I think. It's like the impact of news on stock prices - we already devalued EarthLink's impact on this industry, some of us as long ago as this spring.

We wrote an awful lot about EarthLink's first major announcement of pull back in August (peruse the Archives for the second half of August and the early part of September).

More interesting developments will be in smaller towns, like San Marcos, where we have an active positive process underway, focused on municipal applications, Digital Divide, Economic Development and a Win/Win Public/Private Partnership. (See San Marcos Texas Progress Report)

More interesting developments will be in regional coordination, like in Orange County, where the county and the business council will analyze wireless broadband and host a summit to encourage integration and interoperability, where we have an approach best characterized as Regional Coordination, Local Control. (See SCAG Wireless: Wireless Broadband Reigns in Southern California)

This is not to say that the aftermath of EarthLink will not be interesting and educational, but less I hope, for the morbid fascination of watching a good company go down for the count, and more to highlight that the industry is moving in a new direction and to offer lessons for interested public and private sector players. Because, they have a lot to soak up, as we move Alternate Broadband in a new direction, as I discussed in a post last month (See Phoenix MetroNets, Rising from the Ashes).

For more detail on this latest news, see some of these articles
BusinessWeek - Philly Wi-Fi network hits snags, delays
Wi Fi Net News - November 16, 2007: EarthLink Says No More Money for Existing Muni Networks
MuniWireless - EarthLink: No more 'significant' investments in muni Wi-Fi
DailyWireless - Earthlink to Municipal WiFi: WereOuttaHere

I especially recommend Greg Richardson's analysis at his corporate blog (See Breaking up is hard to do - good title, Greg!). Greg has been perhaps the most intimately involved with some of these big city wireless deals that are likely to be the most affected by the recent actions of EarthLink, so his analysis carries a lot of weight.

Note the common thread in these analyses.
* We still have a long way to go.
* The immediate impact will be on the cities where EarthLink was active.
* The impact may be as much positive as it is negative, because someone will get to buy these networks at a discount.
* The impact may result in a more realistic contractual relationship between public and private partners.
* Other cities will learn lessons from the consequences of these failed altered plans.

Stay tuned, stay informed, Raise Your Network IQ, Feed Your Head. Avoid the mainstream press and surface analysis, which is often more misleading and confusing than it is informative.

More to follow.

Posted on November 20, 2007 at 09:25 AM

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