Guest Editorial: The Trouble With the City's Wi-Fi Proposal

by Sasha Magee‚ Jan. 29‚ 2007

Much has been made of the proposed agreement that San Francisco has negotiated with Earthlink that would allow the company to build a citywide Wi-Fi network. But the coverage in the media has been incomplete, and often incorrect.

- Becca Vargo Daggett
Monday, January 29, 2007

San Francisco Supervisors who would reject the Earthlink-Google deal now have an alternative. The central conclusion of a recent report from the San Francisco budget analyst is that a municipally owned wireless network is fiscally feasible. But equally important for the upcoming Board of Supervisors' vote is the report's conclusion: that the process leading to the Earthlink-Google deal was profoundly flawed.

Suffolk County’s Department of Information Technology will no longer accept responses from vendors concerning the Request for Expressions of Interest, Information and Comments that it put out in early July as of today, August 30. The end of the month also marks the end of the Suffolk County Wireless Committee’s focus groups and Island-wide phone survey. The county believes it should have enough information and feedback by now to begin the formal Request for Proposals, which it hopes will go out to potential vendors before the end of the year.