Jun 12, 2008 12:01 am US/Pacific
Free Wi-Fi Expected In All Of SF By End Of Year
SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) ―
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San Francisco Skyline.
AP
Free wireless Internet may be available to all San Francisco residents by the end of the year, Mayor Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday.
For about a year the city has been collaborating with San Francisco-based networking company Meraki Networks Inc. to install free wireless Internet throughout the city, according to Newsom.
Nearly 100,000 San Francisco residents, including those in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood and the Mission District, have since been using Meraki's network, called Free the Net, according to Chief Executive Officer Sanjit Biswas.
"The idea is to be in every neighborhood by the end of the year," Biswas said.
Free the Net uses indoor and outdoor radio repeaters, small white boxes about the size of a DustBuster, to provide wireless Internet. As more repeaters are installed throughout the city, more residents receive the free wireless Internet.
Free the Net is part of numerous other networks that provide free wireless Internet as part of San Francisco's "Network of Community Networks."
The project was launched after Newsom unsuccessfully attempted to provide free citywide wireless Internet with Google and Earthlink.
"We just didn't give up," he said of the success the city has had in the past year since it collaborated with Meraki.
To ensure all residents are able to use the free wireless, the city plans to introduce the wireless Internet to affordable housing developments.
Valencia Garden Complex, a 260-unit residence located at 360 Valencia St. where Wednesday's announcement was made and part of the Mission Housing Development Corp., is the first low-income housing site to host free wireless Internet throughout the building, the housing development's Chief Executive Officer Larry Del Carlo said Wednesday.
"We're starting with low-income housing to make sure they aren't left out," Del Carlo said.
In addition to free wireless Internet accessible to all units in the building, a computer lab where workshops and programs are hosted was developed in the building in April, according to Del Carlo.
Residents may use the lab and service department to receive help writing a resume and seeking jobs within the community, as well as to let children use the computers for academic purposes, according to Martin Ugarte of the Mission Housing Development Corp.
The wireless Internet comes at no cost to San Francisco residents because Meraki uses money from their research development budget to pay for the service. Meraki receives money from municipal branches and private investors, according to Biswas.
(© CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Bay City News contributed to this report.)
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