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] 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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