May 18th, 2007 4:40 am
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We want to thank the hundreds of you who came out on very short notice to ask the Board of Supervisors to approve free WiFi for San Francisco. It was an awesome display of the need and support for free Internet access for all San Franciscans. If you missed the hearing, you can watch it on SFGTV, by selecting the "BOS Budget and Finance Committee" link for May 14th.
San Franciscans who cannot afford Internet access, small business owners, community leaders and others descended on City Hall on Monday to plead their case for free WiFi.
The hearing room was packed with hundreds of free WiFi supporters, who one-by-one told the Board that they don’t want to wait any longer for free WiFi. "Why is it that poor people always have to wait?" Rev. Arnold Townsend asked the supervisors. After hours of testimony in support of free WiFi, Supervisor Chris Daly responded by in effect telling those who cannot afford Internet access that they will have to keep on waiting. Daly delayed a full Board of Supervisors meeting on free WiFi until July 11th.
Thousands more of you have signed our petition in support of free WiFi, while countless others have written and called their supervisors asking them to stop delaying and approve free WiFi for San Francisco. Now more than ever we have to keep the pressure on the Board of Supervisors, demanding that they listen to the people they represent and approve free WiFi for all San Franciscans on July 11th.
The proposal to create free WiFi is the right thing for San Francisco - as the City Controller’s report released last week made clear. The report found that the free WiFi contract as proposed would help close the digital divide and save San Franciscans who already have Internet access an estimated $9-$18 million a year.
Please call or email your supervisor today. Tell your supervisor you want free WiFi. Also, email your friends and ask them to do the same. We can be the first major city in the U.S. to provide free WiFi for all its residents. But, we need your help to get there.
- : 1.0
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May 19th, 2007 at 12:42 am
How many more meetings will Chris Daly continue to delay a Wi-Fi vote? It seems like he has more power than the Mayor, as Daly is able to continuously stonewall the implementation the Google/Earthlink Wi-Fi proposal which is obviously wanted by a large majority of SF citizens. I personally will do everything I can to make sure Daly never gets elected again.
May 22nd, 2007 at 8:16 am
I am just finishing up a week long trip to Portland Oregon where they already operate a municipal wifi network called MetroFi. My experience with this network was utterly disappointing. During my stay I have not been able to connect using MetroFi once!
Chris Daly is right on this issue. This project is a complete waste of resources and effort. The City would have to install WiFi INSIDE buildings and residences for this technology to really work right. Is this going to happen? I think not.
A Municipal Fibre Network makes much more sense to me especially as we are moving into an increasingly bandwidth hungry era.
May 22nd, 2007 at 8:16 am
The Mayor’s “Free” inferior WiFi that fulfills a deal he made with Google and Earthlink?
Why not look around at some of the successful city-owned hi-speed WiFi systems?
How about a local Citizens Advisory Committee comprised of the IT people from our top local hi-tech companies? Let the experts design a great system.
Gavin’s WiFi is far from free, and who wants Google and (Scientologist run)Earthlink harvesting our personal info?
Rob
May 23rd, 2007 at 8:01 am
why don’t you guys do a segment about the SF parrots, and the supervisors recent ass-backwards decision to outlaw feeding them when they have no real natural 24-7/365 day a year food source and/or habitat?
what’s the matter? don’t you want to get the most blog postings ever in the history of humankind, or what?
May 23rd, 2007 at 8:31 am
i mean, let’s face it; if you have a 1/4 acre of land in SF, you all put a skyscaper on it, so where are you all going to find decent parrot habitat?…
May 26th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
To Tim… I have no idea what might be wrong with the Portland Wi-Fi system, but that does not mean the system Google/Earthlink is proposing will not work here. A Google sponsored system is already up and running in Mountain View, and although it may not be perfect… it works. If you want to access an outdoor Wi-Fi system inside a building, you just need to get a Wi-Fi modem which can be placed close to a window. If you are in the small percentage of people who do not have access to a single window in your building, I am sorry, you will just have to keep using whatever wired connection you are currently using now, or you can relocate. Nobody can please all the people all the time.
I personally do not want the city to spend tens of millions of our tax dollars to make sure that every single SF citizen has indoor access to some kind of city-run fiber internet connection. Do you expect to have access to this dream fiber system without paying a monthly fee? If you do expect you would have to pay something, why should the city waste money on a new fiber system if we already have the option to pay for DSL or Cable access? If you expect our tax dollars to cover the cost of building and maintaining a FREE Internet fiber connection for all citizens… it would be far cheaper to just have the city pay Comcast a negotiated per person price to give everyone free internet with the cable infrastructure that already exist. The city would have to pay an outrageous amount of tax dollars to install new fiber system, while Google/Earthlink would actually be GIVING the city money to supply us with free Wi-Fi.
To Rob… tell me exactly why you think “Gavin’s WiFi is far from free”? And as far as your suggestion that we should… “look around at some of the successful city-owned hi-speed WiFi systems?” You will not be able to find a single American city that is nearly as large as SF that has a city-owned system. Only a few small cities where bureaucracy is minor, and a large majority of the citizens are affluent, have been able to afford a city-owned Wi-Fi system. Also you say “Let the experts design a great system”… Google/Earthlink are experts, so why should we have yet another “Citizens Advisory Committee” argue and delay the implementation of any kind of city-wide Wi-Fi system for who knows how many more years. It is thinking like that that keeps so many good ideas from ever becoming a reality in our city.
May 31st, 2007 at 6:51 am
I own and rent a loft in Portland’s Pearl District. The free WiFi recently reached this neighborhood and you can get a signal. It is a slow connection so my tenants choose to pay Comcast for speed. Likewise, I want fast, 100% reliable and secure service so here in San Francisco, I pay Comcast. A city owned system is a poor choice for where our government should be spending money and time - leave it to the experts - Google and Earthlink. I don’t think anyone is saying you still won’t have a choice to pay the cable company or phone company for a DSL line if you don’t want free service.
June 4th, 2007 at 9:11 am
In Great Britian, people are pulling back from wi-fi, concerns about wi-effect on the human brain and children exhibiting hyperactivity. Studies need to be done.
June 5th, 2007 at 3:28 am
Anybody who is concerned that Wi-Fi signals may cause health problems are just alarmist who’s fears are not based in any Scientific fact. If you actually do some research, you will know that cell phone signals are more powerful than Wi-Fi signals, and after years of study, nobody has been able to link an increase in heath problems due to cell phone use… and that is with cell phone signals being broadcast only an inch or two away from people’s brains every time they make a call.
When you walk outside, you are getting far more radiation from the Sun than you are receiving from any surrounding Wi-Fi signals, so if you really fear radiation so much, you should live in a cave deep underground… and never come out.
June 20th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
Scott-nearly all the IT professionals that I have spoken to think the Google/Earthlink proposal is bunk. It will be very slow, have spotty coverage, won’t reach above the 3rd floor of buildings, won’t work inside many buildings, will probably still exclude most of the folks on the wrong side of the ‘digital divide’, and will subject us to more crass advertising, data mining, and security risks. Personally I’m glad that our supervisors haven’t swallowed the same pill that the mayor has. There are many superior systems out there.
If the mayor wants support for his city-wide ideas, it would serve him to meet with the elected supervisors. 70% of the voters want him to, and he still refuses. Refusing to work with the Supes and then complaining about their lack of enthusiasm for his ideas makes him look like a major fool, and a first class prima donna.
What is he afraid of?
Rob
June 25th, 2007 at 7:58 am
Free Wi-fi won’t benefit the poor who can’t afford the technology or replace it when it’s stolen, lost, broken. I have an airport card and can barely keep a steady signal IN THE PUBLIC library in SF.
Safety… show me the research, before you beam me and my kids with more radio waves.
Also, before contaminating the air, why not clean up our water supply and take out the cloramine that we endure daily, bioaccumulating in our tissues.