EarthLink took its first major municipal Wi-Fi project live today, “cutting the wires” on its wireless mesh network in Anaheim, Calif.

The network is the biggest of the projects EarthLink has launched so far, spanning a 50 square-mile area radiating from Anaheim’s city center, but today’s launch is of a much smaller scale, encompassing a two square mile zone in downtown Anaheim that EarthLink has been using for testing and measurement. The remainder of the network is expected to be complete by the end of the year.

EarthLink is building the access points on light poles using mesh gear supplied by Tropos Networks and using Motorola’s Canopy broadband wireless gear for backhaul. Motorola is also performing the installation and integration work. The ISP plans to offer speeds up to 1 Mb/s to homes and businesses for $22 month, a price cheaper than the standard or premium services offered by local cable provider Adelphia or AT&T DSL, but not cheaper than the budget low-capacity service at the low end of those companies' broadband menus.

EarthLink has been searching for a way to grow its ISP business as more customers leave its traditional dial-up service. However, with no broadband access network of its own, EarthLink has been aggressively courting towns and cities to build broadband in the sky. So far it has announced eight contracts, including the much-coveted San Francisco and Philadelphia deals.