Re: Fiber-Optic Illusion

Actually I found the answer..

Mayor Newsom has announced a new free wireless broadband Internet 
service in Union Square... "San Francisco offers the service on a test 
basis in partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Economic and Workforce 
Development, the Department of Telecommunications and Information 
Services (DTIS), the Recreation and Parks Department, UnwireNow, a San 
Francisco wireless service provider, and Terabeam Wireless, a world 
leader in providing extended range, license-free wireless data 
equipment."

http://www.sfgov.org/site/mayor_page.asp?id=27481

--mark

On 26 Oct 2004, at 22:14, John Berry wrote:

> 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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