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: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.