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34 Comments
- digdugsmug, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10This is good too see but only promises to add to the "smug" problem in San Francisco.
- jacks0n, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Whether earthlink sucks or not, something is always better than nothing.
- mlebeau, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6This with a Skype WiFi phone would be kinda sweet. :)
- stage3, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Great but earthlink sucks!!
- bmson, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5That's great. Congrats San Franciscans(?)
Iceland is putting up wifi, that cover 60% of the population. And are planing to start a mobile-IPphone service in June (first IPmobile ever).
I hope that this will be the next trend. Would be so cool the be able to go on line almost anywhere. - Hubris, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4How long until the major telcos wade in to fight this? Free wi-fi is a threat to their expensive cellular data services, and they have bought politicians and passed laws to stop this in other places. San Fran (and California in general) is probably a place where free wi-fi would really take off - it's a totally cool idea.
- jervana, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3this is great.
no more piggybacking off some neighbor's signal. i can get it free....and legally!
oh and this is a great victory over SBC, who has been trying hard to keep this from happening.
!viva la revolucion! - bschroeter, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I don't think this type of model will work well unless they have a majority subscribing to their higher speed (which will be tough if you are giving it away). No matter how targeted the ads are on the free model I think it will be tough to sustain paying for upkeep, technology upgrades, bandwidth, customer service, etc. while giving it away for free. I think the normal Earthlink or MobilePro/Neoreach model is what will survive in the long run which is charging the customer for access.
- rabiddogma, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2So if Earthlink and Google can do it, why is it illegal in many places for cities to offer it themselves?
- bschroeter, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2By the way, if you are interested in this stuff, this is a great blog - muniwireless.com. The three leaders in the space are MobilePro (mobileprocorp.com/neoreach.com), Earthlink, and MetroFi. Should be interesting.
- cyberious, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This is totally awesome... now if the trend can just keep growing and spread like a wild fire
- wraithemail, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Our Toronto Hydro Company has decided to blanket Toronto with WIFI access too. I hope its free!!!!!
- wowzendoo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Google and EarthLink can do it because it's not illegal in California.
- anthonyb415, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You guys that are claiming a misleading headline need to read the article. As do the people that hate earthlink:
" For its part, Google, in Mountain View, intends to provide the free, so-called Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity) access. The service it proposes would be faster than dial-up but slower than a typical broadband connection.
In its joint bid, Earthlink plans to offer speedier access, but for a fee. No price has been set, but EarthLink plans to charge around $20 a month in other cities where it is negotiating Wi-Fi contracts, including in Philadelphia and Anaheim. " - futurefront, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Though I love the idea of blanketing metropolitan (and other) areas with free wireless, what are the security issues with this? Can people make purchases and bank online? I dig this, but I gotta wonder.
- anthonyb415, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This program will have to report to the city of San Francisco. It's more of a privately run municipal project, not a profit hungry business venture...but if it was, your right = it wouldn't be worth it.
- anthonyb415, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1For sure! That was one of the first things I was thinking of when talks of all this began several months ago.
- MLyzz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Digdugsmug.....i heart you
- raniya, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I wonder when it will come to Miami...and finally stop paying tmobile for their hotspot service.
- charlsky, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I blogged a similar story a while ago. You can read it here: http://www.thesanfrancisconewsblog.com/282/
- Aero1, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2why is it always san francisco? that city sucks.....i know its near cvalley and what not and where digg is and what not, but i saw nothing special there technologically....NYC beats it hands down.
- SteaminTmann, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Hopefully, we're getting this in long island too:
http://www.libn.com/article.htm?articleID=33971 - mattyohe, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Google has stated that this has the potential to be free, and you pay a fee for a higher bandwidth connection.
- digdugsmug, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I couldnt resist...
- dyessdawg, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1its not free-- its affordable. Also-- did anyone catch the seinfeld / billy mumfree reference in the article? "perhaps a cockeyed optimist"
- maxsunset, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1"Google Inc. and its partner EarthLink were chosen by San Francisco Wednesday to blanket the city with affordable wireless Internet access, beating out five other bidders for a chance at the highly coveted contract."
As cool as that would be, no where did it say FREE, it said AFFORDABLE. Misleading headline. - Agraek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I've read a few things saying that plans are to make it free with a heavy ad base, or you could pay around $20 a month and get a faster connection, also removing the ads.
Sounds like a real deal to me. I'd buy it, if I lived in the city. - dashaff, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The telco have only made it illegal to build/own/operate a municipal wireless networks with tax payer dollars.
Google, Earthlink and MobilePro/Neoreach use their own capital to put these networks up. There are no tax payer's dollars are going into them, so they can build them where ever they like. - lwdallas, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1God help you if Earthlink is running tech support or billing.
I have been a good an faithful Earthlink customer until the day I could not get through the outsourced non-English speaking nightmare of billing and technical support lines. When I pointed out clerical errors and billing problems the foriegn-run infrastructure did the one thing I would never have guessed.
They REFUSED to let me pay them. - Bran70n, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0earthlink=meh... though atleast its not AOL. :) I think that it would be pretty sick to have it. Though here they only have it in the financial district and its Verizon. I like it.
- wowzendoo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Telcos are already fighting it big time. Lots of states have laws on the books (which telcos have lobbied for) that prohibit municipalities from forming their own WiFi networks. Check out this map...http://www.freepress.net/communityinternet/=states
The Philadelphia project had to get a waiver from the telcos, since municipal wireless networks are illegal in Pennsylvania. - humbledstrength, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0*Crosses fingers and hopes for some free wifi in CT*
- raniya, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0I wonder what do they mean by AFFORDABLE then, $20/$30/$40 a month perhaps?
- dmclone, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0digdugsmug with a classic.
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