Tech Shout!

EarthLink has notified its customers regarding the shut down of the Wi-Fi service in Philadelphia. Currently EarthLink is offering a thirty-day transition period till June 12, 2008 to its existing customers.

EarthLink was initially in talks with the City of Philadelphia and a non-profit organization for transferring the entire $17 million Wi-Fi network for free and also pay cash and donate the new Wi-Fi equipment. However, due to few unresolved issues among the City, Wireless Philadelphia and the non-profit, this could not result in a success.

“EarthLink has worked diligently for many months to transfer our Wi-Fi network to a new owner — at no cost,” said Rolla Huff, EarthLink’s chairman and chief executive officer.

“Unfortunately, our hope that we could transfer our network to a non-profit organization that had planned to offer free Wi-Fi throughout Philadelphia will not be realized. Since we have exhausted our efforts to find a new owner of the network, our only responsible alternative now is to remove our network at our cost and assist our Wi-Fi customers with alternative ways to access the Internet,” Huff added.

The Wi-Fi service will be terminated soon after a transition period, i.e. after June 12th. EarthLink is said to be contacting its Philadelphia customers, informing them about the termination of the Wi-Fi service.