 In a report on municipal wireless networks by The Wall Street Journal, Minneapolis's was singled out as being "a success story", with the publication explaining that the concept of having the city as the anchor tenant was a good one. The article cited the wireless network in Philadelphia that was being set up around the same time that Minneapolis's was, but was being run and built by EarthLink, the other finalist in the bidding process to select a network for Minneapolis. EarthLink had relinquished control of its partially complete network in 2008, in part due to a low subscription rate of only 5,000 customers in May of that year. Minneapolis, meanwhile, had 10,000 subscribers, and the network was nearing completion. In reference to the variety of stalled or failed wireless projects across the country, PC World cited USI Wireless as "the only firm that got the numbers and engineering to add up for them so far." A 2009 article in Computerworld noted that "Minneapolis is one of the few large cities that has deployed Wi-Fi successfully." The wireless network was tested in December 2007 by wireless testing firm Novarum, and was found to be the fastest metro wireless internet network in America.
