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] 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? > > > > _______________________________________________ > BAWUG's general wireless chat mailing list > [unsubscribe] http://lists.bawug.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless _______________________________________________ BAWUG's general wireless chat mailing list [unsubscribe] http://lists.bawug.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
