Google-Earthlink Frisco Wi-Fi Plan Enters Final Stretch
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Written By Reprise Media | April 6, 2006 | Share This
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Surprising virtually no one, a city panel yesterday recommended selecting the Google and Earthlink joint bid to build and maintain San Francisco’s proposed municipal WiFi access network. The companies have been considered de facto front runners for the project since consolidating their bids, and will now enter into final negotiations to hammer out the details.
The plan calls for one high-speed network, set up by Earthlink, that would charge a monthly fee (no pricing plan for SF is announced, but Earthlink will charge $20 for similar service in other cities). A second, free network would be controlled by Google and sponsored by ads. Although Google’s WiFi net would be five times slower than the broadband provided by Earthlink, it would still be faster than dial-up and theoretically accessible anywhere within the city limits. City officials hope that everything will be up and running by the end of the year, although neither company is known for their expertise in constructing extensive WiFi networks.
Of course, an undertaking of this magnitude is bound to generate concerns. A News.com blog points to a report released earlier Wednesday by the Electronic Privacy Information Center that criticized the Google/Earthlink bid because, by requiring all users to log on, it would create “the opportunity for persistent tracking across sessions.” The report doesn’t like Google’s ad-serving plans either, since ads would be targeted based on such information as user behavior. Meanwhile, Techdirt opines that the ‘muni’ project is actually a “for-profit venture” that essentially creates and Google/Earthlink duopoly. If San Francisco’s going to yield right-of-way rights for a private company to build a ubiquitous network, why not “let other providers offer service on that network at a reasonable price as the tradeoff?”
Related: Google’s WiFi ad-serving patents.
Topics: Wireless & Mobile |