After beginning with great excitement and promise, municipal WiFi [1] is hitting some very public snags. The most visible snarl is in San Francisco, where politicians are trying to change the basic agreements with Google and Earthlink that would govern the city's network rollout. In general, it seems that a combination of tight municipal funds and nervous telcoms is putting the brakes on city-wide wireless deployments in city after city. Both AT&T and Earthlink are pulling back on existing contracts and are not signing new deals. What's the key to getting new projects off the ground? Start with a hefty financial commitment from the city, and you're heading in the right direction.

For more on the slowdown in municipal WiFi:
- read the news analysis [2] at CIO-Today