said by Shack:That is an interesting point. Seems like a strange course of action.
Not really. The municipal WiFi landscape has changed quite a bit over the last 2 years. Almost every new city-wide WiFi project has now turned to a franchise agreement with private companies bidding to build and then collect fees for access. The taxpayer supported built and run by the city/town model has almost completely disappeared. I think AT&T is just keeping the pressure on to make sure the taxpayer supported model never returns. And their subsidiary is taking advantage of the new model by bidding on the franchises.
