Olga Kharif from Business Week wrote an article today about MuniWiFi operators around the U.S. promising to dismantle the WiFi networks built until now because they have no customers… The statistics show that from the expected 20% – 30% of subscribers living in a certain area, only 1% – 2% subscribed.

Of course, people will love using *free* WiFi networks across the city, and of course everyone thinks it’s a good idea to have *free* WiFi, but the costs for a free network have to be covered by the city also, not only by the ISP’s and companies willing to use the *free* WiFi as an advertisement platform. Tom Haulli from Bloggingstocks wrote about San Francisco’s WiFi ballot: “Do you want *free* WiFi” the people are asked, and who in their right mind would say no to such a question? OK, maybe my grandma who has problems with GSM phones, and why do they work with no wires attached?

Glenn Fleishman from WiFinetnews.com writes about Milwaukee’s MuniWiFi not being built at all due to “whether it will make financial sense to build the network“, and thisis based surely on the 3 years experience San Francisco had with MuniWiFi and other similar projects.

Some good news though comes from Glenn Fleishman, about *free* WiFi on trains in the UK. The new operator, National Express who will take over on the East Coast from December 2007, included it (*free* WiFi) in their offer, as until now only First Class had it, and coach passengers had to pay for access.

Wireless is fun, can be monetized, but it’s nothing like we’ve ever seen until now… Starting to get intrigued as how many people can be blinded by a single word: *free* and not take the time to ask themselves: what’s it going to cost me in the long run?!

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