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Free Wi-Fi For the Residents of Venice, Italy
pmontra writes "The City of Venice, Italy, started to offer free Wi-Fi to residents (Google translation from the Italian source) on July 3 2009. Tourists and other visitors will pay 5 Euros a day for the service starting from September. The hot spots are connected to a ten thousand kilometer (6,250 mile) fiber optic LAN the City started deploying in the '90s. The first day of free Internet access has been celebrated with a digital treasure hunt in the channels of the lagoon city."
And I heared it stinks
New things are always on the horizon
1. it shows Americans that you can get something for free, much to their utter dismay, given the tenets of their society;
Free? How wonderful! So the workers installing and maintaining the equipment will all donate their time! And all the equipment will be given to Venice for free also! And in the future, all the equipment needing replacement due to age or damage will also be free! And the Chinese and other Asian manufacturers will send all this equipment to Venice for free! They must really love Italy!
It must be heaven there where Economics 101 doesn't apply, everything is free and no one has to pay for anything.
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
"Our city is sinking into the sea, what can we do to stop this development?"
"... I know, free wireless!"
Helsinki has free Wifi in a lot of places as well as hot chicks (that aren't fat arsed American tourists). Stockholm and Oslo probably have it also. Oulu also has some kind of citywide Wifi or Wimax or something, I think - plus more hot chicks.
Beat that!
Founder & COO, Hayai India (hayai.in) / USA (hayaibroadband.com)