[IP] San Francisco receives more than 24 Wi-Fi bids
Begin forwarded message:
From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: October 4, 2005 12:30:16 PM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] San Francisco receives more than 24 Wi-Fi bids
Reply-To: dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[Note: This item comes from friend Janos Gereben. DLH]
San Francisco receives more than 24 Wi-Fi bids
Mayor calls free wireless 'a fundamental right'
Reuters
Updated: 8:06 p.m. ET Oct. 3, 2005
<http://story.sanfranciscostar.com/p.x/ct/9/cid/20134e53b4e12830/id/
85e4dd6d45f851e8/>
SAN FRANCISCO - San Francisco has received more than 24 separate
proposals to provide free, wireless Internet services citywide from
vendors including Web search company Google Inc., the city's mayor
said Monday.
City officials said participants ranged from Cingular, the largest
U.S. wireless carrier, to Atlanta-based Internet service provider
EarthLink Inc. to San Francisco wireless broadband start-up Feeva Inc.
In August, the City of San Francisco had issued a "request for
information and comment" to vendors interested in creating an
affordable wireless network available in virtually every nook and
cranny of this hilly city of around 750,000.
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said his call for free wireless
access for all San Franciscans could be satisfied by a city-owned
wireless company, some form of public-private partnership or by
completely contracting to private parties.
At a news conference, he and other city officials compared wireless
access to other municipal functions like water, power and libraries
and called wireless Internet access to information a fundamental
human right.
"This is inevitable — Wi-Fi. It is long overdue," Newsom told a news
conference at San Francisco's city hall. "It is to me a fundamental
right to have access universally to information," he said.
The San Francisco mayor said he was seeking to promote free or low-
cost municipal wireless access in order to make the city more
attractive to businesses and residents. But he also cited its utility
as an alternative means of distributing information in the event of a
natural disaster such as an earthquake.
Chris Vein, director of telecommunication and information services
for the City of San Francisco, said the proposals involved a range of
different free or low-cost business models.
Only one company Vein declined to name had proposed an advertising
supported plan for free wireless access, he said.
That company appeared to be Google. A Google spokesman on Friday had
confirmed that its Wi-Fi access proposal could be funded through
online advertising.
Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com>
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