San Francisco's showcase Wi-Fi project is turning into a quagmire for
both city mayor Gavin Newsom, and Google.
Newsom announced the project in October 2005, and Google showered the
mayor with affection: a trip to Davos in Larry and Sergei's private
jet, and the company offered him campaign contributions. Not
surprisingly, Earthlink, Google's partner which will actually be
doing the work, was announced the winner in April last year.
But Earthlink had two formidable obstacles to contend with: a
challenging topology for wireless deployment - San Francisco
officially has 43 hills - and the city's taste for political combat.
While Wi-Fi evangelists urged the city not to look a gift horse in
the mouth, city supervisors had other ideas.
On January 9th, Supervisor Jake McGoldrick tabled a long overdue
motion requesting a cost-benefit analysis. The "free" connection
speeds barely met FCC definitions, he said, and were far short of
other municipalities 1Gbit/s Wi-Fi connections. Wi-Fi was rapidly
obsoleted, he argued, and the city would serve its citizens better
with subsidized, city-managed fiber network, with Wi-Fi for a few
open areas.
"It is a very slow system that very few people would want to use," he
concluded. McGoldrick's motion urged the city to restrict the
Earthlink deployment to a couple of mile-square test areas. It struck
a chord with residents who worried that it was creating a private
monopoly.
[MORE]
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Best regards, FAQ for Wireless Internet: <http://Wireless.wikia.com>
John Navas FAQ for Wi-Fi: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi>
Wi-Fi How To: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_HowTo>
Fixes to Wi-Fi Problems: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_Fixes>
Re: NEWS: SF Wi-Fi 'elephant' tramples Google, mayor
John Navas <spamfilter1@navasgroup.com> hath wroth:
><http://www.theregister.com/2007/01/26/sf_wifi/>
> The "free" connection
> speeds barely met FCC definitions, he said, and were far short of
> other municipalities 1Gbit/s Wi-Fi connections.
(...)
> "It is a very slow system that very few people would want to use,"
Sigh. 1Gbit/sec is slow? I wish I had that with my wireless setup.
Re: NEWS: SF Wi-Fi 'elephant' tramples Google, mayor
On Sat, 27 Jan 2007 17:18:34 -0800, Jeff Liebermann
<jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us> wrote in
<3cunr2p9ko8d5ndep6q6pdkdn4are69d2p@4ax.com>:
>John Navas <spamfilter1@navasgroup.com> hath wroth:
>
>><http://www.theregister.com/2007/01/26/sf_wifi/>
>> The "free" connection
>> speeds barely met FCC definitions, he said, and were far short of
>> other municipalities 1Gbit/s Wi-Fi connections.
>(...)
>> "It is a very slow system that very few people would want to use,"
>
>Sigh. 1Gbit/sec is slow? I wish I had that with my wireless setup.
That is of course a typo, with the intended number being 1 Mbps.
--
Best regards, FAQ for Wireless Internet: <http://Wireless.wikia.com>
John Navas FAQ for Wi-Fi: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi>
Wi-Fi How To: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_HowTo>
Fixes to Wi-Fi Problems: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_Fixes>
NEWS: SF Wi-Fi 'elephant' tramples Google, mayor 
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