News from PC Magazine: Silicon Valley to Get Free Broadband
The entire Silicon Valley is finally going to have free wireless broadband throughout 42 cities, provided by a group called Silicon Valley Metro Connect.
The group, comprised of IBM, Cisco, SeaKay, and Azulstar, announced on Tuesday that their proposal to wirelessly connect the Silicon Valley was accepted by the San Mateo County Telecommunications Authority (SAMCAT).
The Metro Connect network will be a combination of Wi-Fi and WiMAX and span 1,500 square miles. It includes six tiers of service, two of which are free.
Wowie, right? Well then there is this:
The first tier of free service is limited with download speeds of 256 kilobits per second and upload speeds of 60 kilobits per second. It will not support VoIP or file sharing and it will require a credit card so that children won’t be able to use it. Children will use the second tier, called “Kids,” which is also free but will only offer secure filtered content. The free models will be heavily supported by advertising.
The four remaining levels will have anywhere from 400 to 1,000 kilobits per second and cost between $14.95 and $59.95 per month.
First of all the free part is a little lame. And how is 256k/60K in any sense of the word defined as “broadband?” And what about people who eschew credit cards or even high schoolers. Heck, what about poor people in the county (can you spell East Palo Alto) who can;t get credit cards? This whole scheme sounds fishy if not overly ambitious if you ask me. And just because some unknown county authority (originally formed to contract with the cable-TV folks) approved this doesn’t mean it will get anywhere. Watch it fall apart once the real politicos get involved. Needless to say, I’m skeptical.
Oh, and one other thing. Silicon Valley is actually located south of San Mateo County as far as I’m concerned — in Santa Clara County. Cripes.
All I know is that the Dvorak’s BS Meter is really funny! Was there anytime were the pointer hited the 10 (Total BS) mark?
I can see why they are doing it, as SV, is the Tech center of most of the US.
ALL those corps are in that area anyway.
WHAT I do see, is a cheap way to monitor the compitition..
GREAt way to spy on everyone, and the corps.
Great way to get some dumb people to pay for free “broadband”.
And how is 256k/60K in any sense of the word defined as “broadband?”
The FCC says any greater than 200 kbit/s is broadband.
What you don’t believe your own government !?? 😉
/ Smart Ass mode
🙂
I like the meter!!! so appropriate on so many occasions. How about another meter to cover the range of relavancy to web site nerds, versus relevance to the general public.
256k is broadband, but barely.
That’s how a lot of companies in the UK made money advertising “half-price broadband” not telling people that it was also half speed (of the regular, at that time, 512k)
Can you say orbital internet connection? From outerspace you can’t see the county lines painted on the map, or the politicians, or the so called ‘County Telecommunications Authority’s’ or the RBOCS… It will talke years to decide who even own’s the lightpoles let alone the ridgetops when they decide to put in the WiMax/WiFi repeaters..
forget it, go have a Latte’ but it will be fun to watch the fur fly!
#1, I heard it does regularly when I post a comment. But hey, that’s just me.
think your meter could have been placed at 10 for this story. *Free* in this case falls under the term *Presidential word parcing* (and that goes for the last 2 Presidents).
The U.K. does this already with broadband(or so called broadband) and the goverment goes along with it. The companies there are making a fortune with fees from *free* broadband and wifi.