[CAnet - news] San Francisco receives 24 bids to provide free WiFi across city

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[From Dave Farber's IPer list -- BSA]


Begin forwarded message:

From: Dewayne Hendricks 


[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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