The Arizona Republic reports Tempe, Chandler network disruption in Arizona temporary: The networks in those two adjacent city, operated by Kite Networks, went down due to what the city of Tempe's go-to man on Wi-Fi, Dave Heck, said was Gobility and Kite shutting down their authentication servers before potential buyer Telscape had assumed operational control. This is why the several Tempe network users who wrote me were generally able to see an active network but not connect. The article says that Telscape should have the network back up this evening or tomorrow, while Chandler's network has been available since Friday. See my coverage from yesterday, with a recap on Kite's history and the state of municipal Wi-Fi.
Update: Heck is even blunter in this interview with another local paper, the East Valley Tribune: "Kite could have kept its servers running while California-based Telscape was preparing to take over service, Heck said, but instead decided to just shut down. 'I don't think they even cared, to be honest with you,' Heck said."
While the deal is apparently not finalized with Telscape, a large regional telecommunications company with a specialty focus on Spanish-speaking customers, it's far enough underway that they're assuming network responsibilities. With only several hundred current subscribers to the two networks, the lockout had limited effect.