It looks like the telcos and cable companies haven't passed anti-municipal network legislation in Georgia yet: A big chunk of City Hall unwires this month, and chunks of the Atlanta airport by March 2005. A private firm has contracted with Atlanta to add Wi-Fi to city buildings, but will also continue its own rollout at private locations like hotels and retail stores. This is an interesting partnership, because the city's stamp on the Wi-Fi carrier, Biltmore Communications, and the branding of the service as Atlanta FastPass should make it a much easier sell for private parties to want to climb on this particular bandwagon.
The network's access costs will vary depending on airport, public building, and private facility. No mention of unlimited monthly subscriptions, but there will certainly be one given the plan to make it a city-wide service.
The article notes that the deal might sit outside the typical municipal bans, even if one were passed, because a third-party has been contracted separately and just provides revenue to the city. But it's possible that new legislation would be written to try to scotch this kind of deal, too.
Another leading hotspot operator in Atlanta, 3rd Wave, has changed its name to Ripple, and continues to pursue its now 55-hotspot-strong plan of charging for installation and operation of free-to-access hotspots.
3rd Wave is still the name of their Free Wi-Fi division - http://www.3rdwavehotspot.com -, Ripple is the new name of their IT business.