AT&T this week won its first municipal Wi-Fi deal. The service provider has changed its stance and is now all for becoming a supplier of free, ad-sponsored fixed wireless service on municipal networks. In the past AT&T has fought against municipal Wi-Fi networks, saying the subsidies offered by local governments provided an unfair competitive advantage.
AT&T says it is bidding on dozens of municipal Wi-Fi network contracts across the U.S. The carrier"s first such network is being built in Springfield, Illinois, and will offer residents up to 260-kilobits-per-second Wi-Fi service. AT&T will also offering a faster service, up to 1 megabit per second, for a fee.