The venerable AT&T has seen better days, so it is gratifying to note a success for the company: Springfield, Illinois, the city which gave us Abraham Lincoln, will likely select AT&T to build a city-wide WiFi network. This will be the company's first major mesh WiFi victory. Mayor Timothy Davlin said that the city will seek a blanket WiFi proposal submitted by AT&T, pending formal approval by the City Council. The mayor said that the network will eventually cover a total of 30 square miles using a combination of WiFi and WiMAX. AT&T will pay to build and maintain the network, without using subsidies from taxpayers.

Following a pattern that and EarthLink pioneered in San Francisco, AT&T said it would offer free, ad-supported Internet access throughout Springfield and also a faster paid service without ads. The faster service would be a low-cost add-on to existing residential and business DSL subscriptions.

For more on the AT&T Springfield project:
- see this Telecommunication Industry News report