Forum Moderators: goodroi
The Mountain View, Calif.-based company filed an application late Friday to provide wireless, or "WiFi," service that would enable anyone in San Francisco to connect to the Internet.
Google submitted its 100-page bid in response to a request from Mayor Gavin Newsom, who is looking for a company to finance a free wireless network to lower the financial barriers to Internet access in his city.
More than a dozen other bidders are competing with Google.
The Mountain View, California-based company filed an application late on Friday to provide a wireless, or Wi-Fi, service that would enable anyone in San Francisco to connect to the internet.
Google submitted its 100-page bid in response to a call for proposals from San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom, who is looking for a company to finance a free wireless network to lower the financial barriers to internet access in his city.
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[sfgate.com...]
Let's see 30 access points per square mile. With San Francisco at 49 square miles, that is 1,470 access points. But considering we have a big artificial park (Golden Gate Park) and some other non-residential mountainous areas, the number of installed WAPs will probably be much lower.
Didn't Google buy a utilities/electric company? Think they will use electric lines to transmit data?
Please put Edmond, OK on your next list of cities to provide free wifi internet access. I'll be moving there soon...
It might not be a bad idea for publicity either. It's in the heartland, and stuff like that doesn't come around here until it's usually already everywhere else.
Why not start in the middle and expand outward!
Sincerely,
--Tired of Plugging in.
Anyone take a look through the 100 page proposal yet?
will they require some kind of proof of ID to use this?
how about a 'Google account'? :) orkut is already integrated ...
Am i wrong in thinking google would be acting as an ISP here?
Am i wrong in thinking google would be acting as an ISP here?
Considering they would be Providing and Internet Service...
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I would say....NO, you would not be wrong. :)
Welcome to Oklahoma! Free Wi-Fi sweeping across the plains, and through the cities, would be nice indeed, but the existing OKC metro broadband selections ain't too shabby, and folks are enjoying the existing local wi-fi growth each passing month it seems.
Donald Berryman, executive vice president of municipal networks for Earthlink, asked whether Google had the know-how to be an Internet service provider. And providing the deal for free, he said, is not sustainable in the long run.
Yahoo partnered with SBC out here. But if Google starts running away with the eyeballs it's going to hurt Earthlink and other ISPs in the long run.
Could this be the beginning of an evolutionary change in the way we access the internet, where old models are supplanted by new ones?
if Google starts running away with the eyeballs it's going to hurt Earthlink and other ISPs in the long run.Could this be the beginning of an evolutionary change in the way we access the internet, where old models are supplanted by new ones?
Bingo! Most have agreed with MS, that it's about control of the desktop, but the core battle has always been about control of the eyeballs.
I thought having a free wireless network running down the length of Upper Street in Islington was fairly progressive, but Google evidently has bigger ideas than Islington council.
Will it be done via the mandatory toolbar download?
Or will we see a Google browser soon with ads integrated in (like Opera used to be)?
Or will there be a log in page every time you access Google Wifi that serves ads targeted to you, or your clickstream data?
How is this going to play out?
This explains all the dark fiber that Google is buying.
Google's tagline is no longer "to organise the world's information" its now "to serve the whole world ads"
dreaming them is hard, but still the easy part :). Google is outsourcing this, at least the tech part. They will probably try in SF and see how it works out. Hard to tell unless you try, but if SF turns them down, it will be a black eye for Google.
As far as eyeballs go: I get my cable from Time Warner and Earthlink, but I have MSNBC as my home page.
Dear Santa Google,
I sure wish google would bring their free Wifi to ALL Airports and Dallas,TX!
Who says Google would need to do this for the whole country to gain the benefit I describe? They could do this "at a loss" for as few as a dozen cities across the globe to get statistically significant data.
(ISP's are already selling their logs for this kind of data mining, so no need to make a fuss about this being a new privacy concern.)
My guess is that SF is taking a hard look at the privacy implications. If it's Govt' sponsored it's a different animal from Joe Schmo agreeing to have GoogleCam see what he eats so ads can pop up when dessert time comes
whoisgregg,
How dare people expect any privacy
Don't mistake my comment for suggesting it is not a privacy concern. I went to the effort to point out it isn't a new privacy concern. I could have put it less succinctly: "Just because you didn't know this was happening, don't think it's Google's original idea or try to hijack the thread into the privacy implications of this activity."
I'd be all for a discussion of the privacy implications of ISPs selling access to their traffic logs, but that's not what this thread is about. (Since that topic isn't intrinsically about Google, free Wi-fi, or the city of SF.)
My guess is that SF is taking a hard look at the privacy implications. If it's Govt' sponsored it's a different animal from Joe Schmo agreeing to have GoogleCam see what he eats so ads can pop up when dessert time comes
As Gregg noted, other ISPs undoubtedly share non-personally-identifiable surfing records with third parties. And frankly, I detest Comcast and that gouger Earthlink ($50/month for DSL? Bastids!) far more than I fear Google :).
Also, I don't forsee that government / taxpayer funds would be going to Google. And lastly, this'd be a fully voluntary service; don't trust Google? Don't log in to their Wifi service.
Seems not only benign, but quite wonderful to me. Sayonara T-Mobile Hotspot fees! Bye bye overpriced internet cafe fees :). As someone else said... dang, how long 'til Google wires up some airports? Now THAT would rock!
So you sit in a cafe searching for a new TV and the ads say "Hey! There's a place just over the road from you!"
I'm sure there are many ways that Google could come up with that would help defray costs. Just the thought of offering "premium access", different ways of delivering targetted ads, etc - but I'm more curious how they plan on delivering it in the most cost effective way. I'm sure there are some novel ideas of how to do it, which could mean it won't be long before seeing it in a city nearby.
Very cool!
As for those people in rural areas - just go to the Holiday Inn Express lobby :)
If Google does not cover San Francisco, someone else will.
Huge Lease for GoogleNet at 111 Eighth Ave.
Google has leased 270,000 square feet of space at 111 Eighth Avenue, one of the largest carrier hotels in Manhattan, according to the New York Post. The enormous lease is the most visible sign yet of the GoogleNet, the long-rumored national IP backbone Google is stitching together from its bulk purchases of dark fiber. In recent weeks Google has begun to take the wraps off its ambitions for a range of IP-based services, including VoIP, chat, video-on-demand and WiFi Internet access. The reported lease at 111 Eighth shows that the construction of such "alt-Nets" could become a significant driver of leasing for data centers and telecom hotels. Industry veterans quoted in thePost story are impressed:
"They are building a network," said Hunter Newby, chief strategy officer with telecom specialist firm Telx. "None of us have ever seen any type of network buildup on this scale before."
