With the wireless contracts, it's too early to tell. Building the Philadelphia network will cost at least $20 million to cover 135 square miles, and the work in San Francisco is estimated to cost $15 million. EarthLink will need to rent space on 4,000 Philadelphia lightposts at $74 a lamp, or a total of $296,000 a year. In return, it will charge low-income residents $9.95 a month and wholesale wireless access to other ISPs at $12 a month; they would in turn charge customers $20 a month. So, 50,000 wholesale accounts at $12 a month would bring in $600,000 a year. Taking out rent and the 5% revenue it shares with Philadelphia, as well as the amortized costs of building the network, EarthLink could pull in a decent profit. Much also will depend on whether big ISPs like Verizon (VZ:NYSE - news - research - Cramer's Take) try to undercut EarthLink on monthly DSL fees. EarthLink is also investing heavily in Helio, a $440 million joint venture with SK Telecom (SKM:NYSE ADR - news - research - Cramer's Take) of Korea to provide a mobile-phone service targeted to young consumers. Scheduled to launch in the current quarter, Helio is a mobile virtual-network operator, or MVNO, which leases spectrum access from another company in hope of creating a brand with greater value than, say, Verizon Wireless or T-Mobile. A lot is riding on Helio. Not only will it need to woo hip, young mobile customers from their current cell plans, it will be competing with other MVNOs bearing powerful brands such as Disney (DIS:NYSE - news - research - Cramer's Take) and ESPN. At the moment, Wall Street seems split on whether EarthLink can pull all of this off. CIBC downgraded EarthLink on Feb. 28 to sector underperformer, citing "concerns surrounding short-term dilution from new growth initiatives." Analyst Timothy Horan wrote, "EarthLink is expanding into three to four different businesses at the same time that its core business is under pressure." (CIBC says it expects investment-banking compensation from EarthLink.) More recently, Jefferies & Co. analyst Youssef Squali boosted his rating on EarthLink to buy from hold, after dropping it in the wake of the company's 2006 forecasts. "Success in one or more of the company's four new initiatives could reignite growth and cause valuation multiples to expand from their current rock-bottom level over the next 12-18 months."