RSSSan Francisco Wi-Fi Closer to Reality
By Ed Oswald | Published August 17, 2005, 11:57 AM
San Francisco has asked nonprofit groups and businesses to begin submitting their ideas on how to make the city a free or low-cost Wi-Fi hotspot -- all 49 square miles of it.
The city government wants to "ensure universal, affordable wireless broadband access for all San Franciscans," and issued guidelines on Tuesday for submissions. The city has also secured deals from computer manufacturers such as Dell to ensure that thousands of computers would make it into low-income neighborhoods, a hallmark of the plan.
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom says such a move would be unprecedented as most cities looking to build Wi-Fi networks are only providing the service, but not the equipment as well.
In the United States, Philadelphia is closest to being the first wireless city, however Portland, Minneapolis, Charleston and Orlando are not far behind. Of those cities, Philly would be the largest hotspot, covering some 135 square miles.
Smaller cities across the nation including Lompoc, Hermosa Beach and Cupertino in California have already been able to set up wireless networks.
Reponses to Newsom's call for submissions will be due in six weeks, with a plan developed by early next year.
This will work just fine.
This won't even come close to eliminating broadband networks. Wirelss across the city, not very secure. Also the speed of the wireless connection you'll recieve won't even be close to what your getting on your cable/DSL modem.
This idea is great for the Starbucker's and business people.
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How cool. I can see it now. A street bum waving me into a vacant seat at the Gavin Newsome San Franfreako Bum Town Wi Fi hotspot, down at the beautiful Civic Center.
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This sounds awesome. Would this put broadband companies out of business?
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They will claim it will, but it's doubtful. Wi-Fi won't be perfect and will likely only work well in open areas. So if you go inside a building or your house, you will still need broadband access.
But Verizon and others don't want anyone to have free Internet, so they will surely fight whatever San Francisco proposes.
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San-Fransisco has the right idea, but the wrong implementation. Their connections should be wired and available at every residence and should be treated as a utility just like electric/water/etc.
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Yeah, because replacing all the cabling in every building and every house is feasible.
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Unless they use a spectrum that penetrates buildings... GSM does, doesn't it? Think outside the square a little.
There's also no reason it should be slow - we don't even know the specs of the network yet, so saying that it's going to be slower than fixed-line broadband is counting your chickens before they've hatched. :P
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