EarthLink chosen for Pasadena network: The firm keeps on adding customers, but Anaheim remains the only network of real scale that's live. (And it's growing: The initial rollout is part of a longer plan to equip that entire city.) EarthLink has corporate offices in Pasadena, with 400 employees. The firm is now based in Atlanta after a variety of mergers. The city's chief IT director said that MetroFi and NeoReach (which operates MobilePro) were in the running, too, but EarthLink had the "best fit."
Rhode Island will hook up a remote town as part of an extension of their state-wide network: Rhode Island Wireless Innovation Networks (RI-WINS) so far has outposts in Providence and Newport. Foster will be connected to those locations through a $200k state grant. The state had 4,300 residents in 2000. The town is located near the Connecticut border and not near much of anything of any scale.
Norfolk, England, sees largest UK network lit up, free: The city of Norwich and the surrounding area in Norfolk benefits from a publicly funded 30 sq. km Wi-Fi network offered at no cost. The £1.1m network will be a testbed for how mobile access improves life, education, and public service workers. The network offers 256 Kbps symmetrical for public access and 1 Mbps symmetrical (secured) for municipal employees. (The ZDNet article linked says that a 4 km radius (about 50 sq km?) is covered in the city center; a press release from Telabria, makers of the 200 dual-radio mesh access points used in this deployments, counts 30 sq. km overall. I'm guessing it's 4 km diameter (2 km radius), which would be just 12.5 sq km in the city center.) The network will extend to 20 rural locations in South Norfolk later this year.