San Francisco to Expand Wi-Fi Program
402025
The mayor says San Francisco plans to rapidly expand its free wireless Internet access program and will soon make free computers available at housing projects and community centers.
506230
A proposal for city-wide Wi-Fi in San Francisco remains embroiled in controversy as key votes have been delayed.
298721
Meraki, a wireless-networking startup, announced plans on Friday to deploy a citywide wireless network that will provide free Internet access for every neighborhood in San Francisco.
692930
By Clint Swett, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.  Jun. 18--After more than a year of fits and starts, Sacramento is on the verge of approving a system that would blanket the city with free and paid wireless Internet coverage for both residents and visitors.
708641
arvind s. grover writes &quot;San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom stated yesterday in his state of the city address that every San Francisco resident will have free wireless internet access.
384335
InfoWorld - Two important votes&#160;concerning San Francisco&#39;s plan for citywide Wi-Fi that were set for this week have been pushed back, delaying what may be life-or-death decisions on the controversial network.
392452
San Francisco&#39;s mayor set a goal on Thursday of providing free wireless Internet connection citywide. &quot;We will not stop until every San Franciscan has access to free wireless Internet service,&quot; Gavin Newsom
717200
(InfoWorld) - Silicon Valley will get a homegrown Wi-Fi network from Cisco Systems to provide Internet access in metropolitan areas spread across about 1,500 square miles. The Wireless Silicon Valley Task Force chose a group led by Cisco and IBM to build and operate the network, which will cover areas between the southern border of San Francisco and Santa Cruz, and from the Pacific inland to the opposite side of San Francisco Bay. Cisco will provide the infrastructure and IBM will be the master system integrator for the project. Their team, called Silicon Valley Metro Connect, also includes Azulstar Networks, which will be the service provider operating the network, and SeaKay, a nonprofit that will help get disadvantaged residents online. As municipalities around the world jump on the public Wi-Fi bandwagon, the Silicon Valley project takes a high profile because of both its location in a legendary high-tech region and its sheer size. Although Silicon Valley Metro Connect's current plans wouldn't cover the entire region, large parts of which are lightly populated or undeveloped, the project has gotten sign-in from 42 municipalities. A notable exception is Mountain View, which has its ownÂ city Wi-Fi networkÂ provided by hometown giant Google. Silicon Valley Metro Connect is now entering into negotiations with the task force, said Alan Cohen, senior director of mobility solutions at Cisco. There will probably be a wide variety of services and business models, including paid service, free Internet access and use of the network by government agencies, he said. The first parts of the network should be up and running in the fourth quarter, Cohen said, but he described the whole project as a "multi-year effort." The offering will focus initially on outdoor coverage in populated areas of cities, though some users may be able to reach the network from indoors. The company envisions a network that uses 802.11b/g to connect with users' notebook PCs and other devices and 802.11a, with directional antennas, for meshed backhaul links to wired networks. It will use a wireless LAN switch model with lightweight access points that are centrally controlled. Wider-range WiMax technology could come into play later, Cohen said. Cisco, IBM, and SeaKay also were behind a proposal for San Francisco's planned Wi-Fi network. There, theyÂ lost out to Google and EarthLinkÂ in April, but the group said it would compete for municipal wireless projects around the country under the Metro Connect banner.
446367
By JUDY O'ROURKE  SANTA CLARITA -- The days of patronizing certain food or coffee joints to tap a wireless Internet feed may soon be past, with citywide access on the horizon.
759651
Wireless Internet access, already pervasive in other cities, could debut at top Indianapolis locations such as the airport and the Convention Center as early as next year.
440165
Municipalities that plan to use new Wi-Fi networks being built in their cities will likely drive future growth of the citywide Wi-Fi movement.
769733
An ambitious plan to equip Silicon Valley with wireless public broadband services is proceeding with great hopes but many challenges.The Wireless Silicon Valley project was the subject of a presentation at the MuniWireless conference in Santa Clara, Calif. on Tuesday afternoon. Expected to cost $100 million to $150 million, Wireless Silicon Valley involves developing an architecture covering 1,500 square miles. It would be used by around 40 cities in Silicon Valley, each of which has contributed $2,500 to seed the effort. While there are no officially defined boundaries, Silicon Valley is generally considered to be a span of California cities in the San Francisco Bay Area, including San Jose.The project's vision involves connecting anyone, anywhere, involving any device, said Seth Fearey, project lead for Wireless Silicon Valley and vice president of Joint Venture, Silicon Valley Network."We're going to move beyond the model of laptops connecting the Internet doing e-mail and the Web. We want to connect devices and things," Fearey said.The network would only function outdoors and provide capabilities ranging from citizen access to the Internet to provision of public services. Users would be able to maintain a connection if they linked up in Daly City, just south of San Francisco, and traveled to Gilroy 71 miles from San Francisco.Economic development is the top priority of Wireless Silicon Valley, with the idea being to connect small businesses, attract businesses, and make Silicon Valley an exciting place to be."People coming here for conventions would spend more money if they knew where to go," such as being able to find movie theaters via wireless access, said Fearey."We can use this network to help give them that information," he said.Benefits of the plan are to make a network that is much more useful and leverages economies of scale, one that deploys multiple technologies together, provides more revenue opportunities, and accommodates government staff.Challenges, however, include finding an owner/operator and operating on an unproven business model. Also, the network has a high cost to build and the needs of low-revenue areas must be balanced with those of high-revenue areas. The network also takes time to deploy."We're breaking new ground here," said Fearey. Investors want to see how the network will work and are struggling to determine how they will make moneyThe cities participating in the program are quite small, except for San Jose, Fearey said. "This is a big, big challenge," financially, he said.A request for proposal was issued, resulting in companies such as IBM and Cisco offering to provide equipment and Azulstar to operate the network. These vendors comprise the Metro Connect team that intends to provide the network infrastructure, own and operate it, and sell services. Azulstar, however, was not able to raise money to get the project moving. Now, additional operators are being sought.?The goal with the network is create lots of opportunities for the operator of the network to make money not just from consumer subscriptions and adverting but also from other services such as provision of point-to-point advertising.A variety of applications has been suggested, ranging from wireless reading of water meters to irrigation control and wireless parking meters that could have fluctuating prices based on the time of day.During an earlier panel session at the conference Tuesday, Joanne Hovis, president of Columbia Telecommunications, said that if Google acquires the 700-MHz frequencies to be auctioned off by the FCC, that could change the wireless market.Hovis noted there is much speculation about Google's plans. One audience member speculated Google could open up a wireless network for everybody.?"My personal opinion is I'm not sure Google is serious about bidding on that spectrum," Hovis said. It also would be a few years before Google could build its network, Hovis said.
18411
Company wants access to San Francisco light poles for separate test while building citywide net.
80056
By Clint Swett, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.  Jun. 21--Two low-income housing communities in Sacramento will offer their residents free Wi-Fi Internet access and computers later this fall.
108355
Verizon Wireless plans to expand its wireless high-speed data network into 14 additional cities, including New York and Los Angeles.
318037
(InfoWorld) - Google Inc. has asked for the right to use as many as 1,500 San Francisco light poles for wireless equipment on a test network of its own, separate from the citywide Wi-Fi infrastructure that the company proposed along with EarthLink Inc. The search giant and EarthLink were chosen earlier this year through a request for proposals to build a wireless network around the city that would provide free Internet access as well as a faster, paid service. EarthLink, which would build and operate the network, is now in negotiations with the city on the details of the deal. The network is to be built at no cost to the city, which would provide light poles and other places to mount access points. The Wi-Fi plan, as well as the city's process for seeking proposals and input on it, have sparked protest from activists and public officials who are worried that the city is giving the private companies free rein and getting too little in return. They have asked for city ownership, more privacy guarantees for users and funding to help disadvantaged residents get on the Internet. EarthLink told the city earlier this month that Google wanted access to 450 light poles for a test network, with the option to expand it to 1,500 poles, as a condition of its participating in the project, according to a regular disclosure by the city about the negotiations. Google doesn't want a direct contract with the city for use of the poles, but would rather wrap those rights into the overall Wi-Fi contract, the disclosure said. However, Google's request may not get very far, according to a city official involved in the negotiations. "I don't think we'll be able to accommodate them through this RFP process," said Brian Roberts, a senior policy analyst for the city. The idea seems to go too far beyond the concept presented in response to the RFP, he said. The proposal surprised Kimo Crossman, a local activist who has been watching the negotiation process. Such an arrangement would give Google a valuable asset, he said. "It's all about real estate. It's about getting access to the poles and the buildings, and you'll figure out what you'll do with it later," Crossman said. Google executives could not immediately be reached for comment.
749123
High-speed Wi-Fi Internet access has been tested successfully on the BART subway in the Bay Area.