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Posted by Monty Solomon on June 18, 2008, 7:08 am
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Cities have to bid bye-bye to free Wi-Fi
Ryan Kim, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, June 12, 2008
The free municipal Wi-Fi dream appears to be coming to an end for a
handful of Bay Area cities.
MetroFi, a Mountain View wireless provider that had built its
business largely from advertising-supported Wi-Fi networks, is just
over a week away from pulling the plug on its nine networks including
Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, downtown San Jose, Foster City and
Concord, part of a larger pullback due to a lack of revenue.
Last month, the company informed local users and the cities it
operates in that the system will go dark as early as June 20. MetroFi
is putting its assets up for sale and has reached out to cities and
Internet service providers, hoping they might buy these local
networks. So far, four of the Bay Area cities have turned MetroFi
down, while Santa Clara and San Jose are still evaluating the offer.
The cities are being asked to pay anywhere from $60,000 in San Jose
to $408,000 in Concord for the equipment.
Unless a third-party provider swoops in to continue service, MetroFi
will begin dismantling its networks, ending what has been for many
cities a valuable service for residents and a nice technology badge
of honor.
The retrenchment by MetroFi mirrors a general retreat by Wi-Fi
companies that had hoped to offer wireless Internet service for free
in many cities. Early municipal Wi-Fi advocate EarthLink, which
pulled out of a planned San Francisco network, has also said it is
ending its service in Philadelphia and New Orleans. Many projects,
like those in Milpitas, are scaling back. San Francisco, meanwhile,
is relying on the generosity of San Francisco Wi-Fi hardwaremaker
Meraki, which is slowly building a free network across the city as a
showcase for its technology.
...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/12/BU681140TT.DTL
***** Moderator's Note *****
That's a shame: public WiFi was/is the only Internet access for many
low-income families. I've written before about Mel King's efforts to
provide WiFi in the South End of Boston, and I hope some "angel"
funding can be found to save these networks.
Bill Horne
Temporary Moderator
(Please put [Telecom] at the end of the subject line of your post, or
I may never see it. Thanks!)
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Posted by Steven Lichter on June 18, 2008, 6:30 pm
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Monty Solomon wrote:
> Cities have to bid bye-bye to free Wi-Fi
>
> Ryan Kim, Chronicle Staff Writer
>
> Thursday, June 12, 2008
>
> The free municipal Wi-Fi dream appears to be coming to an end for a
> handful of Bay Area cities.
>
> MetroFi, a Mountain View wireless provider that had built its
> business largely from advertising-supported Wi-Fi networks, is just
> over a week away from pulling the plug on its nine networks including
> Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, downtown San Jose, Foster City and
> Concord, part of a larger pullback due to a lack of revenue.
>
[Moderator snip]
>
> ***** Moderator's Note *****
>
> That's a shame: public WiFi was/is the only Internet access for many
> low-income families. I've written before about Mel King's efforts to
> provide WiFi in the South End of Boston, and I hope some "angel"
> funding can be found to save these networks.
[Moderator snip]
Riverside, Calif is 6 months behind in its deployment from the same
people with the exception that at&t has money in it for its DSL subscribers.
--
The Only Good Spammer is a Dead one!! Have you hunted one down today?
(c) 2008 I Kill Spammers, Inc. A Rot In Hell Co.
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Posted by Sam Spade on June 19, 2008, 9:55 pm
If you were Registered and logged in, you could reply and use other advanced thread options >> ***** Moderator's Note *****
>>
>> That's a shame: public WiFi was/is the only Internet access for many
>> low-income families. I've written before about Mel King's efforts to
>> provide WiFi in the South End of Boston, and I hope some "angel"
>> funding can be found to save these networks.
>
>
> [Moderator snip]
How can a low-income family have the hardware?
If they do a Juno $9.95 dial-up account works good enough for email and
limited browsing.
***** Moderator's Note *****
The hardware is free. Anyone who needs a PC has only to go to a
recycling center and pick up a Windoze box that someone threw out
because it had a virus, or volunteer to clean out the company
storeroom in return for one, or use the FreeCycle mailing lists, or
the "Free" section of Craigslist.
The hardware and software curves crossed years ago: when 1 GHz or
faster processors with 512 MB of ram are going begging on trash days,
there is no problem getting a machine: it's the commercial software
that costs too much for low-income families to afford. However, since
open-source software is free-as-in-speech, they can get a recycled PC
with GNU/Linux and Open Office for nothing.
Of course, when the kids want to surf the Internet or look up their
homework, then a public WiFi network fills in the last, crucial piece
that allows those at the bottom of the ladder to climb the first rung.
Bill Horne
Temporary Moderator
(Please put [Telecom] at the end of your subject line,
or I may never see your post! Thanks!)
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Posted by Steven Lichter on June 20, 2008, 6:51 am
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>>> ***** Moderator's Note *****
>>>
>>> That's a shame: public WiFi was/is the only Internet access for many
>>> low-income families. I've written before about Mel King's efforts to
>>> provide WiFi in the South End of Boston, and I hope some "angel"
>>> funding can be found to save these networks.
>>
>>
>> [Moderator snip]
>
> How can a low-income family have the hardware?
>
> If they do a Juno $9.95 dial-up account works good enough for email and
> limited browsing.
>
> ***** Moderator's Note *****
>
> The hardware is free. ...
[Moderator snip]
> ... a public WiFi network fills in the last, crucial piece
> that allows those at the bottom of the ladder to climb the first rung.
I hear from the AP that Metrofi is now shutting their whole system
down in Oregon, California and Ill. as of this Friday. I called
Riverside, Ca. where I live and first they know nothing about it,
then I was told that the system would be down for a while as they now
have someone else taking it over, who knows, at&t is involved as is
Starbucks. I liked it since I have at&t DSL and got to use the hight
end of it free when I was out in the city.
--
The Only Good Spammer is a Dead one!! Have you hunted one down today?
(c) 2008 I Kill Spammers, Inc. A Rot In Hell Co.
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Posted by T on June 20, 2008, 7:40 pm
If you were Registered and logged in, you could reply and use other advanced thread options > >> ***** Moderator's Note *****
> >>
> >> That's a shame: public WiFi was/is the only Internet access for many
> >> low-income families. I've written before about Mel King's efforts to
> >> provide WiFi in the South End of Boston, and I hope some "angel"
> >> funding can be found to save these networks.
> >
> >
> > [Moderator snip]
>
> How can a low-income family have the hardware?
>
> If they do a Juno $9.95 dial-up account works good enough for email and
> limited browsing.
>
> ***** Moderator's Note *****
>
> The hardware is free. Anyone who needs a PC has only to go to a
> recycling center and pick up a Windoze box that someone threw out
> because it had a virus, or volunteer to clean out the company
> storeroom in return for one, or use the FreeCycle mailing lists, or
> the "Free" section of Craigslist.
Free or close to it. There's a guy in my area that sells desktops for
$50 and laptops for $100.
My old computers hardly ever make it to recycling centers since I wipe
them, throw a Linux distro on them and use them as appliances for
network and telecom purposes.
***** Moderator's Note *****
What's the minimum (both theoretical and practical) system needed to run
Asterisk?
Bill Horne
Temporary Moderator
(Please put [Telecom] at the end of your subject line,
or I may never see your post! Thanks!)
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