Philadelphia's municipal WiFi has won a stay of execution, as a group of "local investors" have decided to take over operations of the network in order to prevent it from being shut down. The investors—which include businessmen Derek Pew and Mark Rupp—plan to expand the current network architecture that was originally set up by EarthLink in hopes of eventually offering free WiFi access to all city residents.

The news comes just days after the network was supposed to go dark thanks to EarthLink's decision to pull the plug. EarthLink, which had originally set up the entire network for free for the city, had decided months beforehand that it would exit the municipal WiFi business. Since then, the company has been shopping around for someone—anyone—to take Philadelphia's network off its hands with no success. When EarthLink finally decided to shut the network down last month (after giving Philadelphia not one, but two deadlines to figure out a plan to take over the network at no charge), it blamed the sad conclusion of the months-long drama on the city's inability to get its act together.

Apparently, that final warning was just the kick in the pants that Philadelphia needed, and EarthLink was happy to help transfer the ownership. "We will work closely with the new owner, our partners and our WiFi customers on a smooth transition of the WiFi network. We believe this is a positive outcome for our shareholders and the Philadelphia community," EarthLink CEO Rolla Huff said in a statement today.

"This network is a valuable asset to this City and I thank everyone involved for their hard work to preserve it," added Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter. "I am so pleased that my Office was able to partner with nonprofit, for-profit and community groups to get this deal done. This is an important first step to reducing the digital divide."

Nutter stressed that the network would continue to operate without the help of taxpayer funds, and that it will have both a wired and wireless component. The city and other large entities, like hospitals and universities, will have the option of becoming customers and making use of the wired/wireless component, while free customers (just regular old Joes and Janes) will be on an ad-supported WiFi model.

Successful.com analyst Craig Settles told Ars that the investors' plan for the network will follow the success stories of Fredericton, New Brunswick, and Minneapolis. Both cities built their municipal networks with extensive capacity to meet the needs of the city and other large customers, while putting excess capacity to use in other ways that benefit the local communities. "[I]f you build a network to withstand the rigorous demands of government communication, the resulting excess capacity can serve many constituent needs," Settles said. "Despite all that has gone on with Philly and their network, I still expect the city to join the ranks of successful muni network projects."

The jury is still out on how many such successful municipal networks there will ultimately be.