I love responsive readers. I asked yesterday if anyone could fill me in more about the upcoming Wi-Fi in Minneapolis. Here is what a few readers had to say:

Reader BK:

The Wi-Fi that Mpls is installing is not free. Residential service is $19.95/month business service is $29.95/month. You can find more info here.

Reader RM expands on the first point:

It's not actually free. The city has put in some money to help with the infrastructure costs, since citywide wifi is a good selling point to new grads, arts and business types the city wants to attract. But once the wifi is set, you would need to have a subscription, which would be about the same cost as purchasing monthly internet yourself (I believe they said $25 a month). The benefit though being that you can take your wireless wherever you go throughout the city, just by having one account, versus needing to have a cable/phone based account for your home computer and needing to access (sometimes for pay) other wifi networks when out with your laptop having meetings, etc.

Finally, Andy Birkey, a reporter at the Minnesota Monitor clarified for me that indeed, this Wi-Fi plan had been in the works long before now.

He adds:

It's also not free. Rates for homes and businesses start at $20 a month, which is very cost effective for consumers who can use the network anywhere in the city from their laptop. It was also proposed as a cost savings to city departments as they can do away with some degree of ethernet and allow mobile employees to access the internet without having to sign up for a telecom wireless account which is substantially more expensive.