Municipal Wireless Systems a Big Joke

Now this looks like a bunch of money wasted for something that would seem like a good deal at the on the surface.

A $3 million plan to blanket Lompoc, Calif., with a wireless Internet
system promised a quantum leap for economic development: The remote community hit hard by cutbacks at nearby Vandenberg Air Force Base would join the 21st century with cheap and plentiful high-speed access. Instead, nearly a year after its launch, Lompoc Net is limping along. The central California city of 42,000, surrounded by rolling hills, wineries and flower fields more than 17 miles from the nearest major highway, has only a few hundred subscribers.

What they should have did was to provide some kind of tax incentive for another wireless service provider to come in there and set up shop. I think Clearwire would have jumped at a chance to sign up lots of people in that area. Instead it looks like they paid millions so that only a few hundred people would to sign up for the service.