Da-Chief
05-18-2008, 08:24
http://i.dslr.net/urls/90/7490.gif (http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/San-Francisco-Still-Working-on-WiFi-94504)
As cities across the nation from Portland (http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/93725) to Philadelphia (http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/94368) struggle with the question of what to do with their stalled wireless networks, San Francisco is slowly plodding away at becoming a Wi-Fi city. San Francisco was originally (http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/82853) planning to be one of the first large cities to get a citywide network but early on it identified problems akin to those that played out in other cities and determined to find a more practical way to create the network.
In January it was announced (http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/90681) that the city would work with Meraki, a company offering free Wi-Fi by creating a mesh network of hot spots on individual s homes across San Francisco. Those efforts are underway (http://noevalleyvoice.com/2008/May/Tech.html); the campaign has been rolled out in the Mission and Haight neighborhoods and is now developing in Noe Valley. Over 6,000 users have logged on so far.
The repeaters used to create the mesh network are placed on a combination of residences and businesses including coffee shops. Municipal wireless expert Esme Vos has suggested (http://www.muniwireless.com/2008/05/17/how-sf-and-other-cities-could-have-created-citywide-wi-fi-access-the-easy-way/) that the city should have required coffee shops to install free Wi-Fi networks with incentives to the cafes including a ranking system of the service by customers. Her suggestion that this would have sped things up reflects the fact that San Franciscans are getting antsy (http://www.geeksugar.com/1629535) to finally get a network.
More...
As cities across the nation from Portland (http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/93725) to Philadelphia (http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/94368) struggle with the question of what to do with their stalled wireless networks, San Francisco is slowly plodding away at becoming a Wi-Fi city. San Francisco was originally (http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/82853) planning to be one of the first large cities to get a citywide network but early on it identified problems akin to those that played out in other cities and determined to find a more practical way to create the network.
In January it was announced (http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/90681) that the city would work with Meraki, a company offering free Wi-Fi by creating a mesh network of hot spots on individual s homes across San Francisco. Those efforts are underway (http://noevalleyvoice.com/2008/May/Tech.html); the campaign has been rolled out in the Mission and Haight neighborhoods and is now developing in Noe Valley. Over 6,000 users have logged on so far.
The repeaters used to create the mesh network are placed on a combination of residences and businesses including coffee shops. Municipal wireless expert Esme Vos has suggested (http://www.muniwireless.com/2008/05/17/how-sf-and-other-cities-could-have-created-citywide-wi-fi-access-the-easy-way/) that the city should have required coffee shops to install free Wi-Fi networks with incentives to the cafes including a ranking system of the service by customers. Her suggestion that this would have sped things up reflects the fact that San Franciscans are getting antsy (http://www.geeksugar.com/1629535) to finally get a network.
More...