Bridging the Digital Divide For All San Franciscans

- Chris Vein, Director, Department of Telecommunications and Information Systems (DTIS)

In his 2004 State of the City Address, Mayor Gavin Newsom outlined a vision of the future – a future where no San Franciscan was to be without the basic building blocks to personal economic freedom. Those building blocks include access to the internet and a computer. For the past seven months, a team of City employees and consultants have been negotiating an agreement between the City and EarthLink to make Mayor Newsom’s vision a reality.

On Friday, January 5, the City finalized an agreement with Earthlink to provide universal wireless internet access at no cost, making San Francisco the first and largest major city in the country to offer such a service. Google has partnered with Earthlink to provide the 300 Kbps free tier of service for use by all residents, businesses and visitors.

With the help of the private sector, the City will soon be able to deploy and maintain this infrastructure at no cost to the taxpayers, while allowing those with the technological expertise to maintain service. With the finalization of the deal, the agreement now goes to the Board of Supervisors for review and approval.

This agreement marks a significant change from the more typical hotspots or hot zones where WiFi access is available in proscribed areas – something that is currently available in many cities and municipalities. San Francisco’s initiative seeks ubiquitous connectivity anywhere, anytime – an especially difficult challenge in a city renowned for its hilly topography – and at no cost to users. The terms of the agreement protects privacy and security of all users, and provides consumer choice through open access.

Universal free wireless is the anchor of Mayor Newsom’s TechConnect initiative that focuses on Digital Inclusion by creating access and providing hardware, content and training for residents without the benefit of real time, consistent access to technology.

For more information on the Mayor’s TechConnect initiative, please log onto http://www.sfgov.org/techconnect

Comments

[Ann Garrison]

Oh, come on. Where are all these comments??? Where is all this free speech here in our little city state?

[mayor]

hi

[mayor of ghana]

hi my mayor

[Eric Dynamic]

"... finalized an agreement ... to provide universal wireless internet access at no cost, making San Francisco the first and largest major city in the country to offer such a service. Google has partnered with Earthlink to provide the 300 Kbps free tier of service for use by all residents, businesses and visitors."

300 kbps is too slow even to access SF Gov videos. Google provides 1mbps free in Mountain View - why won't Earthlink do the same for SF? Because they are a FOR-PROFIT FRANCHISE, expecting their PAYING CUSTOMERS to subsidize the ridiculously slow "free" service. This network is NOT FREE. It is a wealth transfer from some San Franciscans to other San Franciscans with Earthlink tapping the cash flow. We could have done ourselves that with no third-party tapping the cashflow.

"With the help of the private sector, the City will soon be able to deploy and maintain this infrastructure at no cost to the taxpayers,"

SF never needed the help of the private sector; it doesn't need an already-obsolete wifi network either. It needs the political will to go wire San Franciscans with FIBER, and if a real wireless solution is needed, it should be a GSM cell system such as Tokyo has already had for a decade. wifi could never meet the original bid spec and should never have been proposed.

" while allowing those with the technological expertise to maintain service."

Which is to say that SF cannot hire the same people that Earthlink hires - why? Is SF too stupid to run ads for network engineers?

"... San Francisco’s initiative seeks ubiquitous connectivity anywhere, anytime – an especially difficult challenge in a city renowned for its hilly topography – and at no cost to users."

That is outright FRAUD. What else can San Franciscans get for free? Cars? Houses? Food? Whoever pays for it calls the shots. So to avoid demonstrating real leadership in motivating the citizens of SF to pay for something they need or want, sell the whole service out for a profit with no oversight. Not very smart.

"The terms of the agreement protects privacy and security of all users, and provides consumer choice through open access."

The ACLU and EFF do not agree that the privacy and security protections are sufficient. Google and Earthlink will snoop on you unless you remember to tell them NO, and if you use the "free" service you may not have a choice at all.

The one and only alternative to this shoddy deal is for the City to wire itself up with fiber: see the website http://communityfiber.org.

[eric dynamic]

Monday, 9 July 2007 (op-ed posted in SFBG)

Gavin Newsom's Wireless Edsel

What would you think if a fellow tried really hard to sell you an Edsel when you
can clearly see a Lexus on his lot for the same price?

That's what Mayor Newsom is doing with his "wifi everywhere" franchise deal.

The Mayor put out a bid to get everyone connected wirelessly at high speeds, with a decent "free" service. What he has gotten instead is a deal that doesn't commit to connecting anyone, with free service so slow even your dog wouldn't use it.

Newsom wants reelection points for an approved deal now, knowing that he won't have to take reelection hits for the network when people see what they're really getting:

* If you want better than pedestrian speeds, you'll pay fees comparable to DSL. But DSL is faster!
* If you live above the 2nd floor, or away from the front of your building, or in various locations in the city, you won't be able to get service at all. And that will remain tough for you.
* Service will drop out randomly without warning and may take days to fix.
* Only a few people at a time need to download things to make the service hideously slow for all of them.
* The service uses the same frequencies as all the wireless gear people buy for common use. Use your wireless phone, ruin your internet connection (and maybe the neighbor's, too.)
* Google and Earthlink get to snoop on you, your traffic, your preferences. Good bye, privacy.
* The free service will operate at 300 kilobits per second - not even the 1000 kilobits free from Google in Mountain View.
* The underserved will remain underserved despite all claims to the contrary.

While Newsom has been pushing "wifi", optical fiber has become really cheap. But Newsom is ignoring fiber in favor of his pet wifi project. Newsom's friends have been attacking various Supervisors for failing to pursue the wifi deal; but the supes are looking at fiber as an excellent reason to drop the wifi entirely. Why? Here's what you get with community fiber:

* A 1000 megabit connection. Not 300 kilobits, not 6 megabits, but ONE GIGABIT.
* Potential savings of $1,000 per year PER CONSUMER.
* Near-absolute reliability.
* No slowdowns due to congestion.
* No snooping.
* Anyone on the network can become a video producer to the entire world.
* The elimination of monopoly control over our communication networks and a permanent commitment to Network Neutrality that cannot be overcome.

People have asked Newsom why he won't offer GIGABIT Fiber connections to underserved community centers, given that he cares about them as much as he claims. He gives no answer. "Let them eat 300 kilobits."

It is the height of folly for a politician to pursue a bad promise to deliver poor services when the same politician could say he is keeping up with the times and has something much, much better to offer. But that appears to be Gavin Newsom's reelection strategy. He wants to give us an Edsel while pretending it really is better than the Lexus we can clearly see despite his best efforts to hide it.

I'll vote for the guy who wants to sell me the Lexus.

And to think, Gavin could be the first Mayor in the world to give his underserved a gigabit connection. How sad.

Eric Dynamic
Wireless ISP

See http://communityfiber.org

[eric dynamic]

Finally: if we needed any proof that the "wifi deal" is phony baloney, we find it in the abject refusal of Newsom or anyone from DTIS to debate the pros and cons of both wifi and fiber online in a forum like this, for all to see. They freely make claims to the press that they refuse to argue with opponents and rely on the ignorance of the media to get their rotten deal. All the way to putting it on the ballot while studiously misinforming the public what the vote is about. Their arguments for their wifi network wouldn't stand up at all in a refereed debate, so their solution is simple: ignore all objections.

We expect that sort of behavior from monarchs, totalitarians, propagandists - not elected leaders in a supposedly democratic country. If they refuse to defend their ideas or can't defend their ideas, they're probably bad ideas. The harder they try to hide from debate, the worse the ideas probably are. Earthlink doesn't need more money, but YOU could stand to save money while getting better service, couldn't you? But the Mayor and DTIS are silent about your alternatives.

Where's our promise of GIGABIT FIBER? I don't need free service: I want cheap service that I can control at a civic level without worrying about what some for-profit corporation wants from me. I want leaders who recognize that the time to do such a thing is NOW. No more time for half-measures. Optical Fiber is the ONLY way to get wired for the 21st century and beyond.

Newsom and DTIS have BEEN TOLD this repeatedly - and still not one word about fiber from Newsom or DTIS. Totally silent to the public about Fiber. Totally silent about any comparison of the benefits of fiber compared to wifi. Refusing to admit that for the same $20 per month wifi users might spend they could get a GIGABIT connection instead and dispense with invasion of privacy, artifical speed tiers, annual rate hikes and the lot. Holding off the good stuff so they can sell their shoddy wares.

Tell Newsom to start talking fiber or else quit running for mayor. The mayor we want would embrace fiber technology for a host of obvious reasons. He certainly would drop the dead-ender junk wifi network.

http://communityfiber.org