Paul Kapustka's Blog
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July 21, 2006
MetroFi and AT&T: A pyrrhic partnership?
Reading Om's news of a potential partnership between MetroFi and AT&T, I'm not sure I agree with his assessment that "it puts a serious cramp in the [muni Wi-Fi] plans of others, namely Earthlink," simply because I think you have to doubt AT&T's seriousness in this area. This could be one partner who stands to win more by the partnership failing, than succeeding.
Clearly we will know more if and when the details come out, but I'm not sure exactly what AT&T would bring to a muni Wi-Fi partnership, other than maybe not opposing such deployments, as the company has done in the past through various means.
Also not sure what Om means by calling MetroFi a "laggard" in this space -- seems to me they have a pretty good record so far for a starup. You just hope that the "partnership" news doesn't turn out to be a pyrrhic relationship for MetroFi, bogging down its progress while it waits for a the slow steps of AT&T to keep pace.
Posted by paul at July 21, 2006 10:50 AM