San Francisco's Step Forward Towards Muni-WiFi
There were rumors that San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom was going to announce his plans for muni-WiFi covering the city today. It wasn't quite that much -- as he basically just said that they were still going to do it. The announcement today was basically asking for proposals (which can come from private companies) to build the system using WiFi and possibly other technologies. The interesting part, though, is that the timeframe is fairly ambitious. Newsom wants proposals in by the end of September and wants to launch the service within 90 to 120 days afterwards -- which might be a bit too aggressive. It will be interesting to see how hard incumbents fight this muni offering, as Newsom took the first step in making it clear that he'll stand up to any companies that try to fight him on the plan.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
