RE: Fiber-Optic Illusion

SF isn't paying anyone to setup anything. Supervisor Amiano has pushed through funding for a study and Mayor Newsom has backed an
idea or an ideal, depending on how you look at it.

SF owns enough existing fiber and hilltop locations to make a big difference if they decide to go into this. The city also derives
substantial income from Comcast (5% of cable revenue) and somewhat less from cellular antenna rental on various city properties
that this could be a marginal play for the citizens.

Would you want to count on Muni for your Internet connection?



-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]]On
Behalf Of mark burdett
Sent: Tuesday, October 26, 2004 1:54 PM
To: [email protected]
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [BAWUG] Fiber-Optic Illusion


Anyone know which companies the city is paying to setup the free
wireless..?

--mark B.

On 26 Oct 2004, at 09:51, [email protected] wrote:

> "Allen Fear" <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>> If SF wants to fund community broadband, they should start supporting
>> those
>> with experience in the area, like Tim Pozar and Matt Peterson of
>> BAWUG.
>> Imagine what these fellas could do with $300,000, not to mention the
>> millions of dollars that have been proposed to follow. Three years
>> ago, when
>> SFWireless offered to help the city's libraries setup wireless access
>> on a
>> volunteer basis, we were politely ignored. My neighborhood library
>> still
>> doesn't offer wireless access to the public, though it spent a few
>> thousand
>> dollars on new flat panel displays for its public computers. The
>> disconnect
>> between city government and SF's digirati is stunning.
>
> Interesting. Why do you suppose the city would ignore you?
>
> When I heard about the Mayor's plan for free Wi-Fi,
> http://www.techweb.com/wire/networking/51000345, I thought, why don't
> they just make a donation to http://www.sflan.org?
>
> I'm trying to fathom this. Governments seem to like dealing with
> companies
> more than volunteer groups. Perhaps because many companies are
> established,
> have a track record, gaurantee their work, have verifiable resources,
> and
> provide income back to the city in the form of taxes. And I wonder how
> many local government
> reps have received campaign contributions from SBC and Comcast?
>
> If we are to have any influence here we need to organize and lobby as
> companies do.
> Truth and reason always win out in the end.  But we are powerless if
> we do not unite.
>
> Perhaps this could be a topic for the next meeting.
>
> Thoughts?
>
>
>
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