Email Delivery

Receive new posts as email.

Email address

Syndicate this site

RSS | Atom

Contact

About This Site
Contact Us
Privacy Policy

Search


November 2010
Sun Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat
  1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30        

Stories by Category

Basics :: Basics
Casting :: Casting Listen In Podcasts Videocasts
Culture :: Culture Hacking
Deals :: Deals
FAQ :: FAQ
Future :: Future
Hardware :: Hardware Adapters Appliances Chips Consumer Electronics Gaming Home Entertainment Music Photography Video Gadgets Mesh Monitoring and Testing PDAs Phones Smartphones
Industry :: Industry Conferences Financial Free Health Legal Research Vendor analysis
International :: International
Media :: Media Locally cached Streaming
Metro-Scale Networks :: Metro-Scale Networks Community Networking Municipal
Network Types :: Network Types Broadband Wireless Cellular 2.5G and 3G 4G Power Line Satellite
News :: News Mainstream Media
Politics :: Politics Regulation Sock Puppets
Schedules :: Schedules
Security :: Security 802.1X
Site Specific :: Site Specific Administrative Detail April Fool's Blogging Book review Cluelessness Guest Commentary History Humor Self-Promotion Unique Wee-Fi Who's Hot Today?
Software :: Software Open Source
Spectrum :: Spectrum 60 GHz
Standards :: Standards 802.11a 802.11ac 802.11ad 802.11e 802.11g 802.11n 802.20 Bluetooth MIMO UWB WiGig WiMAX ZigBee
Transportation and Lodging :: Transportation and Lodging Air Travel Aquatic Commuting Hotels Rails
Unclassified :: Unclassified
Vertical Markets :: Vertical Markets Academia Enterprise WLAN Switches Home Hot Spot Aggregators Hot Spot Advertising Road Warrior Roaming Libraries Location Medical Public Safety Residential Rural SOHO Small-Medium Sized Business Universities Utilities wISP
Voice :: Voice

Archives

November 2010 | October 2010 | September 2010 | August 2010 | July 2010 | June 2010 | May 2010 | April 2010 | March 2010 | February 2010 | January 2010 | December 2009 | November 2009 | October 2009 | September 2009 | August 2009 | July 2009 | June 2009 | May 2009 | April 2009 | March 2009 | February 2009 | January 2009 | December 2008 | November 2008 | October 2008 | September 2008 | August 2008 | July 2008 | June 2008 | May 2008 | April 2008 | March 2008 | February 2008 | January 2008 | December 2007 | November 2007 | October 2007 | September 2007 | August 2007 | July 2007 | June 2007 | May 2007 | April 2007 | March 2007 | February 2007 | January 2007 | December 2006 | November 2006 | October 2006 | September 2006 | August 2006 | July 2006 | June 2006 | May 2006 | April 2006 | March 2006 | February 2006 | January 2006 | December 2005 | November 2005 | October 2005 | September 2005 | August 2005 | July 2005 | June 2005 | May 2005 | April 2005 | March 2005 | February 2005 | January 2005 | December 2004 | November 2004 | October 2004 | September 2004 | August 2004 | July 2004 | June 2004 | May 2004 | April 2004 | March 2004 | February 2004 | January 2004 | December 2003 | November 2003 | October 2003 | September 2003 | August 2003 | July 2003 | June 2003 | May 2003 | April 2003 | March 2003 | February 2003 | January 2003 | December 2002 | November 2002 | October 2002 | September 2002 | August 2002 | July 2002 | June 2002 | May 2002 | April 2002 | March 2002 | February 2002 | January 2002 | December 2001 | November 2001 | October 2001 | September 2001 | August 2001 | July 2001 | June 2001 | May 2001 | April 2001 |

Recent Entries

In-Flight Wi-Fi and In-Flight Bombs
Can WPA Protect against Firesheep on Same Network?
Southwest Sets In-Flight Wi-Fi at $5
Eye-Fi Adds a View for Web Access
Firesheep Makes Sidejacking Easy
Wi-Fi Direct Certification Starts
Decaf on the Starbucks Digital Network
Google Did Snag Passwords
WiMax and LTE Not Technically 4G by ITU Standards
AT&T Wi-Fi Connections Keep High Growth with Free Service

Site Philosophy

This site operates as an independent editorial operation. Advertising, sponsorships, and other non-editorial materials represent the opinions and messages of their respective origins, and not of the site operator. Part of the FM Tech advertising network.

Copyright

Entire site and all contents except otherwise noted © Copyright 2001-2010 by Glenn Fleishman. Some images ©2006 Jupiterimages Corporation. All rights reserved. Please contact us for reprint rights. Linking is, of course, free and encouraged.

Powered by
Movable Type

« Wee-Fi: Mountain View Usage; Tri-Cities, Ill., Wi-Fi; UWB Shortage | Main | Delays in Washington State Ferry-Fi »

August 28, 2007

Metro Shake-out: Chicago Cancels Wi-Fi, EarthLink Lay Offs, Kite Networks Deal Goes South(west), SkyPilot Layoffs Alleged

It's a big day in the future of metro-scale networking: It's not a crash, but it's a big readjustment.

Chicago cancels Wi-Fi plans: After months of negotiation with bidders AT&T and EarthLink--those are separate, not joint bidders--Chicago decided to cancel its Wi-Fi plans, the Chicago Tribune reports. The city and firms couldn't come to terms. The Tribune says the city wouldn't offer any anchor tenancy commitment; AT&T and EarthLink required that. I can see the meetings. "Free." "No." "Unencumbered?" "No." "No cost?" "No." And so on. Chicago will re-evaluate how it goes forward. AT&T meanwhile now charges $20 per month for 1.5 Mbps ADSL, as well as their merger-required $10 per month/768 Kbps offering. (Ten percent of Chicago residents can't get DSL, but the cable penetration for that 10 percent isn't noted.)

EarthLink lays off 900, municipal division head out: Donald Berryman, head of the company's Municipal Networks division is out--his "employment with the Company is terminating," reads the SEC filing (PDF)--and the position he occupied as an executive VP and president of the division is also gone. 899 of his colleagues at the company are also being laid off. It's unclear how many others, if any, come from the municipal division, but I can't imagine they'll shed the head and that many other employees without some attrition there. The municipal group outsources construction; I don't know it's current size.

EarthLink expects to save $25m to $35m through 2007, although they'll have one-time charges of $60m to $70m. Savings should exceeds those costs within six months. One city in which they will "substantially reduce [their] presence" is Atlanta, where they're headquartered. Companies that change CEOs sometimes change their HQ cities, too.

Useful to note that the new CEO gets a variety of stock incentives, including 700,000 options that vest Sept. 30 of this year, and 800,000 vesting starting Dec. 31, 2008. He was also awarded restricted stock that doesn't vest until starting June 25, 2009. Now, I thought giving executive the desire to make short-term gains was something of the past? Huff could pocket $7m for a $10 stock gain from options over a few months based on strong moves that may have poor long-term revenue consequences (or good ones). The other incentives are longer-term, but he doesn't have to stick around for those. The down side for him is that he did purchase 100,000 shares with his own pennies and dollars (about $750K), so should his efforts fail, he's underwater on EarthLink options and stock as well as out of pocket. Huff just hired a crony, too; the new COO, Joseph Wetzel, was the president of operations at Huff's previous employer.

Speaking of Atlanta, what's the status of its Earthlink-winning Wi-Fi network?

Kite Networks deal goes south: In July, MobilePro sold its Kite Networks division, that runs Wi-Fi networks in the Southwest, and other forms of broadband wireless networks elsewhere--including some under the Sprint name--to Gobility. The deal was for future stock (convertible debentures), and required Gobility to raise $3m in financing by mid-August. An SEC filing from MobilePro states that Gobility failed to raise the funds and let some vendor payments for Kite Networks go slack. MobilePro says it may sue based on alleged misrepresentations from Gobility. Given how little money was involved in the Kite deal, it's unclear how much more MobilePro is willing to invest in its ventures. They provide Wi-Fi service in Tempe and part of Chandler, Ariz. Update on Wednesday: Kite sent out a press release (not available online) in which Gobility's head says that they're still operating the networks and working on funding.

Unstrung reports based on one source that SkyPilot has allegedly slashed half its staff: The company wouldn't respond to a query from Unstrung about what they told that outlet were "rumors." Unstrung says their source said half the company's 80 employees were let go, mostly in sales and marketing, and the company is looking for a buyer. SkyPilot provides equipment for MetroFi's metro-scale installations. I have been wondering with recent reversals in metro-scale networking fortunes what happens to the equipment makers that rely on large-scale installations such as SkyPilot, Tropos, BelAir, and Strix? The market is still growing despite marquee dropouts, and enterprise sales are typically unreported in this context.