It's pretty clear from the story. They are introducing EV-DO 3G data service on the Verizon Wireless network, and operating a free outdoor wi-fi network that doesn't produce any revenue isn't exactly going to be good for business on their new pay-to-use data network.
Also, I'm not sure how much use the wi-fi network gets. How many people use their laptops while on the city streets? I tried to use it once; there was a base station at the phone booth across the street from a hotel I was staying at, but I got no signal from it. I got a good solid signal from a hotel two blocks away that I couldn't use because I didn't have a room number and password, and I got a bunch of unencrypted signals from the apartments of people with cable modems or DSL. I successfully freeloaded on one of those for a few minutes.
Michael D. Sullivan Bethesda, MD (USA) (Replace "example.invalid" with "com" in my address.)