Three articles out of Boston this week on their wireless situation: Remember that excitement back in April about Boston trying to turn the city in a Wi-Fi wonderland? Boston's Weekly Dig and The Patriot Ledger both served cold dishes of the failure of progress in those efforts. The Ledger does an excellent round up of projects and districts offering Wi-Fi for free or fee. It's a bit more positive about the future, with the superb Michael Oh--head of NewburyOpen.Net--noting that no network of a Philly or SF scale using Wi-Fi has yet been built. The Weekly Dig slashes somewhat more, noting that a report on municipal Internet access hasn't moved forward. Michael Oh is quoted again--to similar effect.
Meanwhile, The Boston Globe has turned on two Wi-Fi hotspots with only local information available--no Internet access. The Pulse Points serve up newspaper archives and local advertising. But it's unclear whether folks will connect to a walled garden unless they're desperate for some local factoid or address.