Free WiFi Trend Continues

Palal writes "San Francisco is about to embark on a Free (or low cost) WiFi campaign with the mayor holding the reins, of course, in hopes of offering more low-income residents easier access to the Internet. Since San Francisco, unlike Philadelphia (previously covered on Slashdot for a similar project), is only 49 square miles, will this work here and can this be accomplished in a year as promised or is this just another political plot to get the Mayor re-elected?"

Comments

Gotta Love Canada

[Godboy_g]

They should get local business to participate, they could share the cost, and make it more avilable to end users. That's what they do in my city. We've had free Wifi for over a year now, and they're constantly expanding the coverage. currently it's most of the city. See the following for details: http://www.fred-ezone.ca/index.php

Re:Gotta Love Canada

[SlashdotOgre]

The Rincon Center in the financial district (corner of Speare and Mission) offers free wifi during the week.

If its going to be done, SF is the one to do it.

[Suburbanpride]

San francisco is really a pretty small city, at least compared to some place like LA. Getting completle wireless coverage to the importnat areas ( downtown, the hisght, the filmore, noe valley, the castro.) wouldn't be to hard. although to get every inch of the city woudl be a bit more of a chalenge.

It would certianly look good on a mayors resume to say that he provided the whole city with internet access, but for some reason I have a feeling that the people who would benefit most from this are the upper middle class who already have wireless enable commputers. I don't see this doing a lot for those who can't already aford access themsleves.

Re:free good

[Bimo_Dude]

In your rush for FP, you neglected to RTFA, and the summary in incorrect in it's assertion of "free wifi."

FTFA: Free service for all is probably not in the cards, however. The mayor's statement on the TechConnect's Web site specifically calls for "affordable, wireless broadband access."

It may end up being low cost, but likely not free.

Re:Low income residents in San Francisco

[angle_slam]

Last I read, the median income for an SF resident was $160,000.

Slightly off . . . by more than $100k. According to the census, the median household income in San Francisco is $55k.

Re:Low income residents in San Francisco

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe you should learn how to read because your sense of money is a joke.

From the San Francisco article on Wikipedia:

"The median income for a household in the city is $55,221, and the median income for a family is $63,545. Males have a median income of $46,260 versus $40,049 for females. The per capita income for the city is $34,556."

Re:Low income residents in San Francisco

[coflow]

You're right, what I have read before is that the median home price is such in SF that a person should earn an income of ~160k to afford it. My mistake. http://www.sfexaminer.com/articles/2005/05/06/busi ness/20050506_bu03_real.txt

Re:Can't connect to some sites on SF "free" wirele

[zoomzit]

Although your points may be valid for most municipalities, it is way off with SF.

First off, SF isn't much into regulating public discourse/ nudity. Take the follow for example:

Gay (usually naked)Pride Parade

Usually Naked Castro Halloween

Bay to Breakers: Run (naked) across the City!

Folsom Street Fair: Get you S&M right here. We got everything and we are not afraid to use it... In public!

Second, even if there is federal and state laws on screening out certain content, San Francisco isn't one to follow them (see: Medical Pot, Gay Marriage).

And finally, Gavin (the mayor) is a now a single man. He wants his free p0rn as much as the next guy...