For years, PRI has been warning San Francisco officials that their so-called “free Wi-Fi” idea was guaranteed to be a failure. Finally, they realize it. In late August, Earthlink pulled out of a misguided plan to supply the city with free Wi-Fi, saying it was no longer economically viable for the company. This is a big policy win for freedom and reflects the reality that my colleagues and I presented in a study published last February: that municipal Wi-Fi systems, otherwise known as government controlled Internet systems, always end in failure.

The study, titled “Wi-Fi Waste: The Disaster of Municipal Communications Networks,” reviewed 52 city-run telecom networks that compete in the cable, broadband, and telephone markets. The amount of deception and anti-competitive activity that we found in our sample was appalling and a solid reason why proposed Muni Wi-Fi systems across the country should be opposed. It’s nice to see that politicians, the media, and companies are finally taking notice.

So does this mean an end to the idea of cities blanketed in Wi-Fi? Of course not – it means the opposite. Now that government is not distorting the market with subsidies, both corporate and open source networks can flourish. One company that seems to be doing a good job of expanding Wi-Fi access in San Francisco is Meraki, but there are others as well.