Netstumbler has a good background article (from May, 2005) on the beginnings of the Minneapolis Municipal Wireless effort. As you may know, the Minneapolis City Council voted in a wi-fi plan on February 24 and has two finalists in the RFP process: Earthlink and US Internet.
I discovered here that Time Warner, the Minneapolis cable provider, “had threatened a legal suit against Minneapolis if it proceeds with its network plan.” Time Warner “declined to comment” for the article.
PF Hyper the Blog 