This is the email I received this morning:

"Dear Friend of Wireless Philadelphia:

We wanted to call everyone's attention to an important petition, sponsored by Google, that supports expanded internet access for everyone. Specifically, the petition asks the Federal Communications Commission to "open up…white spaces for wireless broadband and other emerging technologies". White spaces are unused radio airwaves that have enormous untapped potential to support new wireless technologies.

Wireless Philadelphia is dedicated to closing the digital divide and believes the movement to open white spaces can greatly assist this effort nationally. Continued technological innovation in this area will help make critical communications tools more open and available for everyone.

Please take a moment to register your support for this important movement and the myriad of exciting advances it supports.

Click here to view the petition."

Glenn Fleishman On New Network Ownership | Wireless Philadelphia

"This lets Philadelphia achieve a number of different goals," says Glenn. "It means that they could wind up becoming a model city for this kind of approach."

Just received an email from Ryan Nichols/Wireless Philadelphia. His title says "Communications Officer". Sounds like PR to me. The position kinda reminds me of the movie "Fun With Dick and Jane". I think Jim Carrey was the "VP of Communications" in that one,lol... Anyway he directed me to the post highlighted above from earlier this month. It includes audio so take a listen and tell me how doomed we really are in Philly.

Deregulation’s history of empty promises

"Comcast and Verizon lobbied side by side in 2004 to pass legislation in Pennsylvania, so alarmed were they by the city of Philadelphia’s community wireless plans. Now any other city in that state will find it impossible to do the same. In three small neighboring cities in Illinois—St. Charles, Batavia and Geneva—SBC and Comcast fought plans by groups such as the Chamber of Commerce and the Jaycees to build a community fiber-optic network. The citizens’ group backing the “Fiber for Our Future” referendum went down to political defeat twice, in 2003 and 2004, after a well-funded advertising and misleading public relations campaign."

Well, well, well. I guess we won't see the "Free wireless" setup in Philadelphia any time soon. Oh sure it will happen thanks to Wireless Phladelphia. Sadly though, an uphill battle to benefit us means more profit for the two mentioned above.Thanx for nothing...

We are still waiting..., originally uploaded by Solacetech.

T-Mobile

We are still waiting for a concrete answer to Philadelphia's Wireless situation. Some say the comcast lobbyists are slowing things down. What do you think?

http://www.wirelessphiladelphia.org/blog_detail.cfm/blog/73

It's 11:28pm and I just remembered to read my email! Not cool since I missed an email from Wireless Philadelphia's CEO Greg Goldman at 05:16pm. He was excited about his Joint Venture with Mayor Nutter to assume Earthlink's Wireless network. Here's an excerpt from His/The Blog:

"Today, Mayor Michael A. Nutter and Wireless Philadelphia have reached an agreement with a local investor group to take over operations for Philadelphia's Wireless Initiative. Under the terms of the deal, the local investor group is assuming operation of the existing EarthLink infrastructure and will enhance and expand the network as part of their plan to eventually bring free wireless to the City. Philadelphia is excited about this opportunity to become the first major city in America to provide wireless access to all of its citizens at no cost."

http://wirelessphiladelphia.org/blog_detail.cfm/blog/72