Times are tough for EarthLink, and the company's massive workforce reduction is putting many municipal Wi-Fi networks in jeopardy.
The Internet service provider announced that it would lay off approximately 900 employees--about half its staff--as the company restructures in an attempt to boost its sagging stock price. The staff reductions will occur as it shuts down operations in Orlando, Fla.; Knoxville, Tenn.; Harrisburg, Pa., and San Francisco. It will also substantially reduce its presence in Pasadena, Calif., and Atlanta.
But the company's newest initiative--building and operating citywide Wi-Fi networks--will also be hit. Don Berryman, the head of EarthLink's municipal Wi-Fi initiative, will be leaving the company as part of the restructuring, EarthLink CEO Rolla Huff said.
The company has won several citywide Wi-Fi contracts with cities such as Anaheim, Philadelphia and San Francisco. The way these deals are structured, EarthLink builds and runs the networks in exchange for using city-owned infrastructure like utility poles. But the Wi-Fi projects haven't gone as smoothly as EarthLink had hoped.
Over the past few years, blanketing cities with unlicensed Wi-Fi signals has been viewed as a cheap solution to bringing affordable or even free broadband access to cities. Politicians and community leaders have rallied around the technology as an economic development tool that could help bring low-income individuals into the bustling economy of the 21st century.
But as the economic reality of building a network primarily to serve up low-cost broadband access settled in at EarthLink, the company's top brass decided the strategy isn't viable.
So it appears that EarthLink's dreams of competing against the big telephone and cable companies are fading. For many, EarthLink's cutbacks signal a major setback in the company's evolution to break free of its dying dial-up business and become an Internet player with new services to attract subscribers.
There are already signs that some cities are also starting to lose enthusiasm for citywide Wi-Fi networks. Officials in Chicago said the city is backing away from its planned municipal Wi-Fi service after failing to reach an agreement with either AT&T or EarthLink, which had each bid to build the new network.
Vista update on the horizon
After months of silence, Microsoft finally revealed details about its first update to Windows Vista, saying the service pack will arrive in the first quarter of next year. In the next few weeks, Microsoft will start private testing of a beta of Service Pack 1 for Vista as well as a third service pack for Windows XP. The company plans initially to release the beta only to 10,000 preselected testers, though it may expand that release later.
As for what's in the Vista update, it's mostly a collection of existing fixes and tweaks aimed at improving the stability and reliability of the operating system, which went on sale to consumers in January. There are a few minor enhancements, most notably the ability to encrypt multiple hard drive partitions using Vista's BitLocker feature.
The first Vista service pack may serve dual purposes for Microsoft: fixing the operating system's rough edges while simultaneously indicating that it's ready for mass adoption. Microsoft initially downplayed the importance of service packs in an era where patches are easily available online. Also, the company urged businesses not to wait for a service pack to start testing and rolling out Vista.
I am sorry to hear of the troubles Earthlink is having. I wish the company all the best. For me, Earthlink still provides the best service. There are a number of things why I like Earthlink, but among the most important are:
1. FREEDOM OF CHOICE. It allows me the freedom to use any Internet browser, and any email client I want, as well as the freedom to check my email either on the web or by downloading it to my own PC. It doesn't narrow down my choices the way AOL or MSN does.
2. GROUP EMAIL. Earthlink allows me to send out an email message to 200 of my ski club members. Many other email service providers limit you to only about 50 email recipients at a time (like Comcast does, for example). Or limits you to only so many emails per hour.
The combined effect of both of the above freedoms means I can easily communicate with our club members, and maintain several distribution lists (or groups of contacts), such as one for each club trip. And, thanks to the fact that I can use Outlook Express with my Earthlink service, I can easily maintain backup copies of my Address Book, and synchronize my Address Book on two computers in such a way that all my groups (distribution lists) are synchronized too.
No other email program (other than Outlook Express) is capable of synchronizing distribution lists on two computers, at least not easily. Not even the email program that comes with the MSN service (even though both are made by Microsoft).
The more powerful MS Outlook is capable of such synchronization, but the process is so complicated and un-intuitive that it is almost unusable on a daily basis, ... and even when it works, it often leaves you with a duplicate copy of the group, instead of merging all the entries into a single group.
Other email clients are totally clue-less when it comes to synchronizing groups of addresses between two computers. I have tried switching to Mozilla Thunderbird multiple times over the years, but they seem unable to make distribution lists work properly and be backed up and restored properly. So, I keep coming back to Outlook Express. How come the people who designed Outlook Express solved this problem of synchronizing groups years ago, and nobody else can do it today?
For anyone who uses distribution lists of more than 50 people, the combination of Outlook Express and Earthlink is ideal. Everyone else is either imposing limitations on you or is incapable of providing a good backup and synchronization method.
I've had an Earthlink acoount since 1999 and recently tried to switch to them for DSL. The first person I reached was in India. The order was confirmed, but no modem arrived even though I authorized 2-day delivery. After a week, with Geek squad coming to try again to get new computer online, I canceled and stayed with local phone company (not that I'm happy with them!) This person was fine & I don't believe he was in India.
I think that companies that try and save money by outsourcing customer & technical services to another culture are going to lose business in the long run. Adding services to those of us in rural areas is great (took awhile for Earthlink to come here, which is why I made other choices first). However, those services require excellent customer service to retain these customers...
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1. FREEDOM OF CHOICE. It allows me the freedom to use any Internet browser, and any email client I want, as well as the freedom to check my email either on the web or by downloading it to my own PC. It doesn't narrow down my choices the way AOL or MSN does.
2. GROUP EMAIL. Earthlink allows me to send out an email message to 200 of my ski club members. Many other email service providers limit you to only about 50 email recipients at a time (like Comcast does, for example). Or limits you to only so many emails per hour.
The combined effect of both of the above freedoms means I can easily communicate with our club members, and maintain several distribution lists (or groups of contacts), such as one for each club trip. And, thanks to the fact that I can use Outlook Express with my Earthlink service, I can easily maintain backup copies of my Address Book, and synchronize my Address Book on two computers in such a way that all my groups (distribution lists) are synchronized too.
No other email program (other than Outlook Express) is capable of synchronizing distribution lists on two computers, at least not easily. Not even the email program that comes with the MSN service (even though both are made by Microsoft).
The more powerful MS Outlook is capable of such synchronization, but the process is so complicated and un-intuitive that it is almost unusable on a daily basis, ... and even when it works, it often leaves you with a duplicate copy of the group, instead of merging all the entries into a single group.
Other email clients are totally clue-less when it comes to synchronizing groups of addresses between two computers. I have tried switching to Mozilla Thunderbird multiple times over the years, but they seem unable to make distribution lists work properly and be backed up and restored properly. So, I keep coming back to Outlook Express. How come the people who designed Outlook Express solved this problem of synchronizing groups years ago, and nobody else can do it today?
For anyone who uses distribution lists of more than 50 people, the combination of Outlook Express and Earthlink is ideal. Everyone else is either imposing limitations on you or is incapable of providing a good backup and synchronization method.
I think that companies that try and save money by outsourcing customer & technical services to another culture are going to lose business in the long run. Adding services to those of us in rural areas is great (took awhile for Earthlink to come here, which is why I made other choices first). However, those services require excellent customer service to retain these customers...