Google's next step to world domination

[unixronin]

Google just announced a plan to cover 95% of San Francisco with 300kbps wireless Internet, at no cost either to users or to the city, in response to mayor Gavin Newsom's request for proposals last year.

You can find a good discussion of the Google proposal and issues surrounding it here.  My favorite quote from the article:

SBC has already been good for its usual comic relief:  Witness company mouthpiece John Britton claiming that "there is already widespread broadband available today" in San Francisco.  Well, yes, John, there is -- provided you live in a cafe or a bookstore, or along parts of Castro or Chestnut streets where six-figure incomes are just enough to scrape by.  Otherwise, you'd have to -- well, you'd have to work for a telecom to say something that stupid.

Go read it'  It's not only amusing, it's insightful and worthwhile reading.

Comments

[koyote.livejournal.com]

I don't find what the SBC stuffed shirt said to be totally wrong, it's just totally irrelevant. He's totally right. broadband is widespread in SF. WIRED broadband at HIGH FEES. Which is not anything at all like municipal wireless.

So he's not actually wrong, he's just playing the distraction game. Trying to presuppose that muni wifi (and I've lived in a place that had it, it's wonderful) is exactly the same as fee based, provider limited, SBC "quality" wired broadband.

[koyote.livejournal.com]

One thing this individual hasn't considered is the possibility that google will do something really dangerous (to telcos) and set up a local "megaWAN" and create an Internet in SF that has a gateway to the rest of the world, potentially cutting down massively on traffic that has to leave the greater bay area. (similar things have been done in New Zealand, too).

This would be totally and utterly FANTASTIC, IMO