And here they come…. Lompoc, Calif., which spent $3 million on a citywide municipal wireless network reports that has signed up a whopping 281 customers since it launched service in September. That’s an investment of $10,676 for every customer, for those scoring at home. The town’s original feasibility study said the system would need 3,000 to break even. Town leaders say the system is attracting 24 customers a month. At that rate, in 12-1/2 years, Lompoc will finally be in the money. The San Francisco Examiner reports that in Foster City, Calif., “for better or worse, a citywide free Wi-Fi Internet signal has enabled Foster City residents to take their e-mail, homework and digital assistants just about anywhere they go.” Except in places the wireless network doesn’t, which in Foster City’s case is 40 percent of the town. The city, which contracted with MetroFi, had promised residents 95 percent coverage by now. It blames the coverage problems on the layout of homes in Foster City and the geography of the city itself, as if these factors didn’t exist when the network was originally designed. Meanwhile, Willamette Week Online, in an article eloquently titled “Portland Wi-Fi Sucks Inside and Out, says Independent Evaluation,” reports the findings of Portland’s own Personal Telco Project.