San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is going to push his citywide free WiFi access proposal to voters in the November election.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Newsom has put forth a measure that would make it a city policy to pursue high-speed wireless Internet access through a public-private partnership. Voter approval would show support for the measure but wouldn't necessarily impose any specific requirements on the city.
San Francisco's proposed muni-WiFi network has been controversial. The city negotiated a contract with Earthlink and Google to build and operate a network but the project has been delayed. Earthlink CEO Roll Huff last week revealed that his company's muni-WiFi strategy isn't working. To make sure EarthLink gets a return on its investment, he wants "municipal government to step up and become a meaningful anchor tenant on completion of a build."ÂÂÂ
For more on the San Francisco WiFi network:
- see this WSJ article
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Could EarthLink pull out of the San Francisco WiFi deal? Article
San Francisco's muni-WiFi still on hold. Article