The firm Philadelphia has retained to build a citywide wireless Internet network has spent millions more than its anticipated costs and cannot say when it will complete the project, City Council members were told yesterday.

In fact, EarthLink Inc. representatives didn't show up for a committee hearing on Wireless Philadelphia. The company's retreat from the municipal-wireless business prompted the hearing. But EarthLink made clear by its absence that it did not want to be peppered with questions in public as it rethinks its business strategy. All that money spent for a few thousand people. What a waste!!

EarthLink said it had spent more than $20 million to establish the broadband wireless service, "in excess of the $12 million to $15 million anticipated by the city and EarthLink at the outset of the project."

The network is substantially built, the company said, but neither EarthLink nor city officials could provide a date for when the system would be completed.

Greg Goldman, CEO of the city-created nonprofit Wireless Philadelphia, said EarthLink's network had "several thousand" subscribers so far.