Comments on: EarthLink and Google win San Francisco Wi-Fi bid

City selects joint bid to provide residents a wireless network. Decision marks fourth municipal deal for EarthLink.

[200mbpsBPL]

300 kbps...is it really broadband speed?

Internet users in Japan, South Korea will be laughing at our Internet speed ...imho

[martin1192]

Thats what I was thinking

Yea 300 kbs is terrible, they should have at least offered 784 kbs for free.

[tony_z]

Dont you think it is enough for average users?

More speed = more download = more bandwidth = more money

Not everyone is massive downloader. The free wifi is for those who want to use it for web surfing, check email... Not for downloading.

[Jackson Cracker]

They were already laughing

Then again, those high speeds they are getting in Korea are
based on direct fiber connections along the lines of something
like FIOS, not wireless.

[smilepak]

You must be spoiled...

Anything better than dialup or ISDN to me is broadband....

[nicmart]

Why limit competition?

It is anti-consumer to limit the number of companies who can
provide wi-fi in a city. Any company should be able to provide the
service without the city's approval. The desire of politicians to
maintain control and hold over the purse strings is against the
interests of consumers. Other companies may offer faster wi-fi and
more innovative ways of provisioning it. This is the old, failed,
monopoly model.

[Jackson Cracker]

What competition?

Who were all these other companies rushing to provide
wireless services before the city came up with this plan?

[Elfcat]

Regulation and Radiation

I know that some of the concern over this has been with the increase in electromagnetic radiation load on all life forms in the area. I wonder if there are any provisions in the deal to monitor health statistics both short and long term to see whether these concerns hold water.

As far as more grassroots wireless communication is concerned, I remember back when I was looking into amateur radio that there was mention of using those frequencies for data transmission. Somehow that never seemed to go much of anywhere.

Do we know what the proposed signal strengths are, what the predicted reliable locations are, how deep into the BART stations you can stay connected, etc. How would users of this service feel about user-controllable software to turn ones own machine into a sub-server to make "chains of pearls" into less clear transmission areas?