Google Inc.’s bid to blanket San Francisco with a free wireless Internet service cleared a major hurdle Wednesday when a city panel identified the search leader and EarthLink Inc. as the best candidates for the ambitious project.
The recommendation, completing a six-week review, allows the city to begin negotiations with Google and EarthLink, which decided to team together earlier this year after initially bidding against each other. The companies will pay to build the entire network, which is expected to cost at least $15 million.
EarthLink envisions charging roughly $20 per month for the ability to surf the Web at speeds four to five times faster than Google’s free service, expected to be financed with a heavy dose of ads.
This will make San Francisco the largest city in the US to offer free Wi-Fi.
“This will make San Francisco the largest city in the US to offer free Wi-Fi.”
Gee, Detroit should really do this. That’d give it the distinction of being the crappiest city to offer free Wi-Fi.
how is 20 dollars a month free?
Read the 3rd paragraph, again, Jeremy. 2 prices, Free and $20/month. 2 speeds.
When’s this coming to my hometown?????
I’ll believe it when I see it.
It can be tough to get an 802.11 signal two rooms down the hall, and they are telling me that the city will be blanketed with Wi-Fi?
Even if they put high power transmitters out there, remember that your computer has to send a sufficiently strong signal to the node for it to pick up.