EarthLink hires Rolla Huff as CEO: The firm's previous CEO Garry Betty died in January after a bout with cancer, and was replaced with Michael Lunsford on an interim basis. The new CEO hails from Mpower, a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) with voice and data for business and residential customers in California, Nevada, and Chicagoland. This gives him full insight into how the big boys play rough games with competitive players. News.com notes that Huff has been willing to "cut loose unprofitable businesses," but Huff said elsewhere he'd take two months to evaluate EarthLink's current game plan. Combined with EarthLink's previous announcement that it was pausing in its headlong rush to unwire cities, it's possible we'll see a major pullback or expansion. I doubt status quo is an option.

Toledo city council doesn't move Wi-Fi plan forward: After Toledo's city IS director quit and then was fired last week, it looked like the mayor's office wouldn't be prepped for this meeting. The council had questions that lacked answers about specifically where the $2.2m in the contract for municipal services would come from. MetroFi would offer its usual ad-support, free service alongside ad-free, $20 per month service. They estimate $5m to build out the network. One issue at stake is whether free, ad-supported service is identical to the RFP's "free" service.

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