These two stories should get together and talk: Officials in Pierce County, Wash.--Tacoma's county--are apparently peeved after local telecom CenturyTel has decided its test in one city shows the business isn't viable. However, CenturyTel was one of ten bidders on a provide the county proposed, and one might think that they would have been committed to rolling out the service when they made the bid. Apparently unlike all other bidders on other projects that have signed contracts (so far), they were not. Pierce will pull the rights for free use to utility poles and reconsider other bidders.
On the other end of the country, Mebane, N.C., a fair distance from Winston-Salem is going to test downtown Wi-Fi, and CenturyTel there says they'll see if there's demand for city-wide Wi-Fi.