San Francisco Municipal Wireless
Encyclopedia
San Francisco Municipal Wireless was a canceled municipal wireless network that would have provided internet access to the city of San Francisco, California
.
The network was originally proposed by San Francisco mayor
Gavin Newsom
in 2004. In late 2005, the city put out a formal request for proposals, and in April 2006 it was announced that a joint proposal by Earthlink
and Google
had won the bid. The San Francisco Budget Analyst completed a report that analyzes possibilities for a municipal system and critiques the proposed Google/Earthlink option. The proposal was formally scrapped by the city on 12 September 2007, citing a loss of confidence in Earthlink's financial situation.
San Francisco had little money to build out their own infrastructure and so they looked for a commercial provider to build it out. A comment and proposal process was constructed with an RFI/C, or "Request for Information and Comment" and a RFP, or a "Request for Proposal". In 2005 the RFI gave the public a forum for input on how the program could work and be constructed. In 2005 through 2006 the RFP was designed to pick a provider for the project. The RFI/C and RFP processes came about as the City of San Francisco was already talking to Earthlink and Google about the project and there was concern by the public and the Board of Supervisors that the project was on a fast-track with out enough public input on the project. With the end of the RFP, the Google/Earthlink partnership was in the lead to be awarded the contract.
There were two primary components to the Earthlink/Google proposal: Earthlink would install and maintain the network and provide a higher speed (1 Mbit/s), paid connection. Google would be an anchor tenant on Earthlink's network, offering a free basic service (300 kbit/s). Earthlink's plan would have offered a two-tiered pricing scheme, with a discount for qualifying low-income residents.
to underserved communities. Studies commissioned by other San Francisco agencies show that a municipally owned, rather than privately owned option, could provide users with far superior service, at little or no cost to the end user.
Some complaints were based on the fact that alternative networks were not considered during RFP phase.
Soon after Earthlink dropped out, the Mayor's office and San Francisco Department of Technology re-looked at how they could go forward with the resources at hand. During the RFI/C and RFP process, city-owned fiber was suggested by at least one participant in the process as a way to provide backbone broadband infrastructure for the City. The City has started an effort to provide Internet access to various city housing developments via city-owned fiber. At this point, more than 40 housing developments are connected via this fiber or via wireless links coming from fiber connected sites. At many of these developments, the City has also provided free wireless access via cisco, Ubiquiti Networks and Meraki access points. Residents of the developments as well as neighbors to the developments can get free Internet access via these access points.
s easier and more affordable. A new startup partially funded by Google called Meraki
provides a new generation of hardware called the Meraki Mini. Technically, Meraki is not a WISP in that the Internet connectivity is provided by individual cooperative members sharing their bandwidth rather than a central service. To jump-start the effort, Meraki initially gave away the units for free. It has become the dominant wireless community network in San Francisco. Since 2009, Meraki is "not expanding the network right now" according to their website.
SFLan, a project of the Internet Archive
, constructed an experimental cooperative wireless internet service provider (WISP) that grew to approximately 50 nodes, using an over-the-air backbone relying on line-of-sight transmission. Noise level in the ISM bands due to proliferating and competing Wi-Fi signals made many of their long-distance links (several miles) nonfunctional. The network contracted from 50 functioning nodes in February 2007 down to four by October. They are considering changing their architecture to a fiber-and-wireless hybrid by working with the City of San Francisco and leveraging their fiber network.
In 2010 MonkeyBrains, a local ISP, started a pilot wireless project in the Mission District of San Francisco. During the pilot phase, they are providing residential users free service with a nominal setup fee. The City whipsawed by corporate powers, SFLan ending their experiment, and Meraki's "Free the Net" on hold all provided MonkeyBrains with the motivation to start their 2010 free wifi in the Mission. By the End of 2010, MonkeyBrains exceeded 120Mbps of download and 50Mbps upload in their wireless pilot.
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
.
The network was originally proposed by San Francisco mayor
Mayor of San Francisco
The Mayor of the City and County of San Francisco is the head of the executive branch of San Francisco's city and county government. The mayor has the duty to enforce city laws, and the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the legislative branch....
Gavin Newsom
Gavin Newsom
Gavin Christopher Newsom is an American politician who is the 49th and current Lieutenant Governor of California. Previously, he was the 42nd Mayor of San Francisco, and was elected in 2003 to succeed Willie Brown, becoming San Francisco's youngest mayor in 100 years. Newsom was re-elected in 2007...
in 2004. In late 2005, the city put out a formal request for proposals, and in April 2006 it was announced that a joint proposal by Earthlink
EarthLink
EarthLink , is an Internet service provider headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. It claims 1.94 million subscribers.- Business :EarthLink provides a variety of Internet connection types, including dial-up, DSL, satellite, and cable. Both dial-up and high speed Internet access are available...
and Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
had won the bid. The San Francisco Budget Analyst completed a report that analyzes possibilities for a municipal system and critiques the proposed Google/Earthlink option. The proposal was formally scrapped by the city on 12 September 2007, citing a loss of confidence in Earthlink's financial situation.
Proposal
The purpose of the proposal was to provide free, wireless Internet access throughout San Francisco that anyone with a computer and wireless access device could log in to. Wireless access points would be mounted on light poles throughout the city to provide coverage.San Francisco had little money to build out their own infrastructure and so they looked for a commercial provider to build it out. A comment and proposal process was constructed with an RFI/C, or "Request for Information and Comment" and a RFP, or a "Request for Proposal". In 2005 the RFI gave the public a forum for input on how the program could work and be constructed. In 2005 through 2006 the RFP was designed to pick a provider for the project. The RFI/C and RFP processes came about as the City of San Francisco was already talking to Earthlink and Google about the project and there was concern by the public and the Board of Supervisors that the project was on a fast-track with out enough public input on the project. With the end of the RFP, the Google/Earthlink partnership was in the lead to be awarded the contract.
There were two primary components to the Earthlink/Google proposal: Earthlink would install and maintain the network and provide a higher speed (1 Mbit/s), paid connection. Google would be an anchor tenant on Earthlink's network, offering a free basic service (300 kbit/s). Earthlink's plan would have offered a two-tiered pricing scheme, with a discount for qualifying low-income residents.
Criticisms of proposal
The San Francisco Budget Analyst's Office has criticized the proposal, claiming that the Department of Technology and Information Services (DTIS) engaged in a biased and secretive process while crafting the proposal. DTIS's critics state that the network would provide low bandwidth, wireless-only connectivity, and that it would fail to serve its stated purpose of providing internet accessInternet access
Many technologies and service plans for Internet access allow customers to connect to the Internet.Consumer use first became popular through dial-up connections in the 20th century....
to underserved communities. Studies commissioned by other San Francisco agencies show that a municipally owned, rather than privately owned option, could provide users with far superior service, at little or no cost to the end user.
Some complaints were based on the fact that alternative networks were not considered during RFP phase.
Death of the proposal
Many of the Board of Supervisors saw the proposal as the Mayor's project that did not include or give a chance for input by the Supervisors. These Supervisors tried to slow down the process in order for public input to be made. With this effort by the Supervisors and with the Mayor knowing that the Supervisors would be needed for final approval, the Mayor's office put a non-binding proposal on the November 6, 2007 Municipal Election known as Prop J - "Universal Wi-Fi Declaration of Policy". In it, the Mayor wanted to show the Board of Supervisors that public opinion supported the project in order to push the process along. Just before the election, Earthlink killed the negotiations with the City when they could not justify the financial business model. Prop J did go on to pass in the election, but with Earthlink out of the picture the project, as drafted in the RFI/C process, was dead.Soon after Earthlink dropped out, the Mayor's office and San Francisco Department of Technology re-looked at how they could go forward with the resources at hand. During the RFI/C and RFP process, city-owned fiber was suggested by at least one participant in the process as a way to provide backbone broadband infrastructure for the City. The City has started an effort to provide Internet access to various city housing developments via city-owned fiber. At this point, more than 40 housing developments are connected via this fiber or via wireless links coming from fiber connected sites. At many of these developments, the City has also provided free wireless access via cisco, Ubiquiti Networks and Meraki access points. Residents of the developments as well as neighbors to the developments can get free Internet access via these access points.
Wireless community networks
Advances in technology have made setting up wireless community networkWireless community network
Wireless community networks or wireless community projects are the organizations that attempt to take a grassroots approach to providing a viable alternative to municipal wireless networks for consumers....
s easier and more affordable. A new startup partially funded by Google called Meraki
Meraki
Meraki is a cloud networking company that provides hardware and software for building large scale wired and wireless networks. These networks are used by businesses, schools, and other organizations that need wireless access points, multi-site wired networks, or both. It uses a centralized...
provides a new generation of hardware called the Meraki Mini. Technically, Meraki is not a WISP in that the Internet connectivity is provided by individual cooperative members sharing their bandwidth rather than a central service. To jump-start the effort, Meraki initially gave away the units for free. It has become the dominant wireless community network in San Francisco. Since 2009, Meraki is "not expanding the network right now" according to their website.
SFLan, a project of the Internet Archive
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
, constructed an experimental cooperative wireless internet service provider (WISP) that grew to approximately 50 nodes, using an over-the-air backbone relying on line-of-sight transmission. Noise level in the ISM bands due to proliferating and competing Wi-Fi signals made many of their long-distance links (several miles) nonfunctional. The network contracted from 50 functioning nodes in February 2007 down to four by October. They are considering changing their architecture to a fiber-and-wireless hybrid by working with the City of San Francisco and leveraging their fiber network.
In 2010 MonkeyBrains, a local ISP, started a pilot wireless project in the Mission District of San Francisco. During the pilot phase, they are providing residential users free service with a nominal setup fee. The City whipsawed by corporate powers, SFLan ending their experiment, and Meraki's "Free the Net" on hold all provided MonkeyBrains with the motivation to start their 2010 free wifi in the Mission. By the End of 2010, MonkeyBrains exceeded 120Mbps of download and 50Mbps upload in their wireless pilot.