Free WiFi for Frisco: Google’s Idea is Spiffy, But the Mayor’s Mind Is Iffy
Whew. For a moment I thought that Google had lost its mind in proposing to wire the city of San Francisco for free and absorbing the entire cost itself.
Nope. It’s an advertising based model:
One company, which Vein declined to name, has proposed an advertising-supported plan for free wireless access, he said. That company appeared to be Google. A Google spokesman on Friday had confirmed that its Wi-Fi access proposal could be funded through online advertising.
So Google remains sane. Whether San Francisco’s mayor has his wits about him is questionable:
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who became internationally known for his campaign a year ago to legalize gay marriage, said on Monday he considered wireless Internet access a fundamental right of all citizens.
Newsom told a news conference that he was bracing for a battle with telephone and cable interests, along with state and U.S. regulators, whom he said were looking to derail a campaign by cities to offer free or low-cost municipal Wi-Fi services.
Wi-Fi is a short-range wireless technology that is now built into most laptop computers and is increasingly offered on handheld computers and certain mobile phones. Local officials are mulling plans to blanket every nook and cranny of this hilly city of 750,000 residents with Wi-Fi access.
“This is inevitable — Wi-Fi. It is long overdue,” Newsom told a news conference at San Francisco’s City Hall. “It is to me a fundamental right to have access universally to information,” he said.
You won’t find a bigger technology booster than me. I would be thrilled if there could be a way to provide free wireless access to everybody without taxpayers absorbing any of the burden. I would tell the telcos and cable companies that object to read up on the idea of “creative destruction.”
But a fundamental right? Nope.
It’s especially maddening to hear this from the mayor of San Francisco, a city which has historically had a hard time accepting truly fundamental rights while attempting to invent invalid new ones. Cam Edwards helpfully notes: “… the city will hold a referendum on banning firearms next month. I’m guessing the city doesn’t really understand what “fundamental right” really means.”
