This week in wireless

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom wants to make Wi-Fi coverage in the city as ubiquitous as the fog that blankets its neighborhoods.

Joining several other municipalities poised to do the same thing, the city recently invited nonprofits and private businesses to bid on the proposed project, which would offer Wi-Fi access over the town's entire 49 square miles, according to Newsom's office.

One of the major goals of the project, according to Newsom's office, is to serve the city's less affluent by providing free or inexpensive wireless service to low-income neighborhoods. To augment that part of the plan, Newsom's office said, Dell and a handful of other computer makers have already agreed to provide free computers to the city's poor.

It's the kind of plan that Intel would like to see more cities adopting. The chipmaker and several corporate partners launched a program aimed at helping cities use wireless networks to better serve their citizens--and perhaps make a little cash on the side.

Thirteen cities are currently participating in the initiative, called "Digital Communities." Its goal is to give cities technical resources and discounts to help them establish or build out their broadband wireless infrastructure so they can better connect with police and fire personnel as well as with public-works employees such as meter readers and building inspectors. The program also educates city leaders on ways they can use their wireless network as a commercial service, by selling access to the system and by providing wireless services to consumers.

Meanwhile, a small wireless Internet service provider in Idaho and a wireless equipment start-up claim to have set a record for transmitting data across a wireless link. Microserv Computer Technologies, based in Idaho Falls, and Trango Broadband Wireless, a fixed-wireless broadband equipment maker, announced that they wirelessly transmitted data over unlicensed spectrum 137.2 miles.

Microserv used gear from Trango to establish the wireless links between two mountaintops in Idaho using the 2.4GHz and 5.8Ghz wireless spectrum. The link was able to transmit an FTP file transfer at the rate of 2.3 megabits per second. The equipment used was not based on standard 802.11 wireless technology, but instead used proprietary radio technology from Trango.

[Stating]

If It's Implemented Like The Pot Clubs

San Francisco now has 47 "Medical Marijuanna" clubs. The clubs are unregulated, and the medical proof that the "patients" need the 420 is merely a formality. If SF rolls out free WIFI, then I would expect the program to be run with similar care. That is, no regulation or oversight. It will take opportunists a mere few hours to exploit the connections to sell drugs via IM and VoIP, run porn sites, gambling sites, fence stolen goods, run pirated movie download sites, etc. If a city with common sense wanted to do this project, I would support it. But not SF, where common sense has been outlawed.

How will SF pay for "free" WIFI? By hiking fees even more. Street parking now costs $1 per hour, the meters only accept quarters, and there is a 1 hour limit. That makes it very easy for the meter to expire. The DPT Nazi then immediately sweeps down and slaps a $35 ticket on your windshield. If you are a few weeks late in paying the ticket, it will cost you $70. This is just one of many clever ways that "free" SF seeks to separate you from your money under the rubric of being progressive.