At America's Network, John C. Tanner takes a look at the current state of citywide Wi-Fi.

"It's been almost a year and a half since the carrier world and legions of free-market proponents were positively shocked and scandalized at the news that the city of Philadelphia was planning to roll out, at the taxpayers' expense, a municipal Wi-Fi network blanketing the entire city," he writes.

But the muni Wi-Fi phenomenon has continued to grow. "For now the anti-muni broadband contingency has not made its case," Tanner writes. "According to VisionGain, there are over 100 operational city and regional wireless broadband networks worldwide. Well over half of them are outside the US, but there are at least another 300 US cities in the planning stages. By the end of this year, that number will double."

Tanner's advice to the anti-muni broadband types? If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. "At this stage it's arguably better to stop fighting muni Wi-Fi and start looking for ways to cash in," he writes. "For a start, many city project managers are ultimately going to need expert help in deploying and running these things."

"Bashing muni broadband for commercial reasons is a waste of energy because it assumes that the pipe is where all the money is, when we all know that it's not," Tanner writes. "The future is the value add, not the pipe. And value-add is something governments will never be good at."