Starbucks - Internet Caf�'s ... BAH! I, too, am a believer in internet access in Starbucks and such should be free. A local coffee house in Fremont, has a time limit you can sit in their business, with a purchase, and you still have to subscribe to their net access.
You all should read the Article about Jim Mehan in the Guardian, and then follow up on some of the comments in it about the ComCast AT&T broadband merger. Then look into how that effects the effective monopoly that the city of San Francisco gave AT&T for broadband sales and access. The same contract shows the build out rate for broadband, as well as a minimum level of service which is to change at different stages in the build out. Last night I went to a 'town meeting' in Fremont to discuss with the city and AT&T the impact of this merger on users such as my self. I took my AT&T broadband contract with me. In order to get AT&T to change out a piece of equipment on the phone pole, 65 feet from my house, I had to sign a 2 year commitment. The commitment states that my maximum download speed will not exceed 6Mb/s and my maximum upload speeds will not exceed 256Kb. Then Excite folded shop. AT&T changed the rules. I am now limited to 1.5/128 (the 256 was never there). I made arrangements prior to arriving at the meeting to bring this up before the city management, et al. The AT&T people had the gall to tell me that the 6Mb measurement was from my machine to the POLE out on the street. As soon as I can find a way to do it, I am changing to a faster provider that gives a damn about keeping their contracts valid ON BOTH SIDES, and offers higher speeds. If that means I have to join a 'wireless underground' then so be it. I'm ready to get busy on it. Who is in the Fremont/Newark/Union City area interested in working on setting up a Free/Contribution based WISP? One of the interesting facts I got from the 'town meeting' was that Wireless transmissions of information are governed and mandated differently than the wired accesses. In other words the city of Fremont would like to see a wireless network build up on its own, but can not say as much publicly, because of the no competition clauses in the city's agreement with AT&T. Daniel Curry IT Manager Cariocas 625 Second Street Suite 201 San Francisco, CA 94107 ph: 415-348-6516 fx: 415-348-6505 cell: 510-579-6680 "If A equals success, then the formula is: A = X + Y + Z, X is work. Y is play. Z is keep your mouth shut." - Albert Einstein -- general wireless list, a bawug thing <http://www.bawug.org/> [un]subscribe: http://lists.bawug.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
