I believe you can shut it off but it is a cool feature. Most phones have GPS built in but not everyone can receive the signal.

Hey,

I was thinking more a hardware mod? If you steal a phone and just remove it's feature totally

This is really cool of cities to do this, whether there is a fee or not. I'd have a reason to get rid of my broadband card

Earthlink is the only one I know currently that is doing this in terms of a provider, Earthlink has done quite a few in the California area.

How many cities is this going through right now, is it world wide?

As far as I know it has hit some cities here in the USA. But thee is Satellite internet. Which I guess is World Wide if you want to pay the couple hundred bucks a month.