Just ask St. Cloud, Fla. This central Florida community of 28,000 residents commissioned and now owns a truly citywide Wi-Fi network at no additional cost to residents. For more than a year, it has been the only town in the country able to offer 100 percent service availability, according to a study released earlier this year by the independent wireless testing company Novarum. The survey dubbed St. Cloud’s $3 million network the best metro Wi-Fi in North America – ahead of Mountain View, Calif., where locally grown Internet giant Google provides free wireless.

“The really amazing thing about St. Cloud is that more than two-thirds of households have signed up,” says Sascha Meinrath, research director for the Wireless Future Program at the New America Foundation in Washington. “National cable and DSL companies aim for … the 15 to 20 percent realm.” LINK