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Google Irked By San-Fran Wi-Fi Negotiations
'Every meeting is like the first,' complains Google exec

A few weeks ago, an executive for Google said San Francisco's plan to offer free Wi-Fi to residents is being delayed by a slow-moving city bureaucracy, five months after Google and Earthlink won the highly publicized contract to build and operate the network. "Every meeting is like the first," complained Google's Chris Sacca, who heads the company's special projects division.

The city this week insists that progress is being made, and that the city is simply trying to negotiate the best possible outcome for city residents. In exchange for the use of its rights of way, San Francisco is seeking 5 percent of gross revenue from the network, as well as a fee for the use of city light-poles. The revenue from this will be used to help eliminate the digital divide in the city.

Meanwhile over the weekend, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and the Media Alliance circulated an economic argument for a city-owned and operated muni-Fi San Francisco network, as opposed to the corporate-owned Google proposal.
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lithicus0
join:2006-06-30
Chesapeake, VA

lithicus0

Member

so

So has google and earthlink already paid for usage of light poles and other city amenities? If so, I could see how google and earthlink would be angry. Otherwise, it is just a money game and they can't wait to make more money.

ropeguru
Premium Member
join:2001-01-25
Mechanicsville, VA

1 recommendation

ropeguru

Premium Member

Welcome...

To the wonderful world of dealing with government..

FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

1 recommendation

FFH5

Premium Member

Re: Welcome...

said by ropeguru:

To the wonderful world of dealing with government..
Is it even mildly surprising a city WiFi project has encountered delays? The politicians are involved and that is a sure guarantee of a total screwup. Even when the companies involved are doing this at no cost to the city. And that is because the pols don't care at all about the residents - they only care about what they can get out of the project.
roady1
join:2003-11-13
Cleveland, OH

roady1

Member

Pols are ignorant of the potential and the simplicity...

The residents are more concerned that their privacy rights are being violated even though the service is free. It's a wicked nasty process attempting to create something within the life sucking environment that is city government.

calvoiper
join:2003-03-31
Belvedere Tiburon, CA

calvoiper

Member

Re: Pols are ignorant of the potential and the simplicity...

There's a reason people refer to the SF Board of Supervisors as the Bored of Stupervisors....

calvoiper

Corehhi
join:2002-01-28
Bluffton, SC

1 recommendation

Corehhi

Member

I smell bs

The revenue from this will be used to help eliminate the digital divide in the city.
----------------------------------------------------------

Crackheads don't use the internet.The city is trying to get as much money as they can for whatever ill conceived plans they can make. How much cheaper can free access get? I'm sure the gov't has visions of cray computers in every single mom's home, that will fix everything. LOL.

»www.dack.com/images/webl ··· porn.jpg

John Galt6
Forward, March
Premium Member
join:2004-09-30
Happy Camp

John Galt6

Premium Member

Re: I smell bs

"Too much broadband"...


Transmaster
Don't Blame Me I Voted For Bill and Opus
join:2001-06-20
Cheyenne, WY

1 recommendation

Transmaster to Corehhi

Member

to Corehhi

Lap Tops for Loosers

Or PDA's for Panhandlers. I predicted this would happen back when the idea was first rolled out. When you have left wing activists who think everyone else has to pay for their idiotic Utopian ideas what do you expect.

Steve
I know your IP address

join:2001-03-10
Tustin, CA

2 recommendations

Steve to Corehhi

to Corehhi

Re: I smell bs

said by Corehhi:

Crackheads don't use the internet.
Somebody needs to introduce him to the Cooler...
ricep5
Premium Member
join:2000-08-07
Jacksonville, FL

ricep5

Premium Member

Re: I smell bs

said by Steve:

said by Corehhi:

Crackheads don't use the internet.
Somebody needs to introduce him to the Cooler...
Sure, they use Mapquest to locate their next buy.........

marigolds
Gainfully employed, finally
MVM
join:2002-05-13
Saint Louis, MO

marigolds

MVM

Where the problems come from....

Although revenue sharing and free computers are prominently mentioned, the negotiations reveal that contract length (and the conditions for renewal), tech support (whether it will be email only or also by phone), and user privacy are the big issues. All three of those cut much more heavily into the bottom line of Google and Earthlink than revenue sharing and free computers.

»www.sfgov.org/site/tech_ ··· id=40515

One other interesting aspect: The Local Agency Formation Commission made the Dept of Telecom and Information Services defend their negotations after this article appeard. One of the biggest concerns was the 5% revenue sharing... not because they thought the city was demanding too much from Google, but because they thought that they were selling away rights too cheap and giving Google a free ride by only asking for 5%.

qdemn7
Smurf in My Loop
Premium Member
join:2003-09-16
Fort Worth, TX

1 recommendation

qdemn7

Premium Member

It Looks Like...

What the SF bureaucracy REALLY wants is for Google and Earthlink to walk away so they can have their own little socialist Wi-Fi network in their Socialist Utopia. I say good, let Google and Earthlink tell them SF to shove it, and let SF have its way. As slow as that city seems to do things maybe SF will have it's own network about 2010.

marigolds
Gainfully employed, finally
MVM
join:2002-05-13
Saint Louis, MO

marigolds

MVM

Re: It Looks Like...

All the issues are laid out very clearly right here:
»www.sfgov.org/site/uploa ··· 0806.pdf

As you can see, there are 8 sticking points:
15) Product list: Earthlink does not want to offer open access wireless T1 premium services initially.

18) Earthlink will not agree to rate ceilings for lifeline and wholesale products.

20-21) Again, Earthlink will not agree to deploy wireless T1, not to minimum performance requirements. EL also wants to provide quadriennal reports and SF wants annual reports on network performance.

23) EL does not want to provide customer support in Mandarin or Cantonese nor require that qualified ISPs, i.e. Google, provide Tier 1 or Tier 2 customer service to retail customers. EL will provide tier 3 customer support to ISPs. EL does not want to provide customer support (neither email nor phone) to base or basic tier customers and email support only to other customers.

27) EL does not want to support non-browser based devices and wants to ban non-browser based devices from the basic tier.

30) The city wants EL to pay 5% of advertising revenue from the free service (not the premium service) to the city.

35) No details here, but the two parties cannot agree on municipal accounts.

The other 76 major terms of the contract are complete.

GilbertMark
Premium Member
join:2001-05-02
Gilbert, AZ

GilbertMark

Premium Member

Ugh

"The revenue from this will be used to help eliminate the digital divide in the city. "

Yeah, I'm sure anyone in the Hunter's Point/Bay View District is going to rush right out and take out a loan to get a computer just so they can get free internet.

B.S.

Want to eliminate the digital divide SF? First start handing out computers. Of course the poor will just trade them for something they really need like shelter, food, medicene and drugs. Not necessarily in that order.

There are much larger more important issues than this to tackle in SF.

Maondas
Funny, It Worked Last Time
Premium Member
join:2002-09-19
Hilliard, OH

Maondas

Premium Member

Re: Ugh

quote:
Want to eliminate the digital divide SF? First start handing out computers. Of course the poor will just trade them for something they really need like shelter, food, medicene and drugs. Not necessarily in that order.

You forgot to mention booze and cigarettes.
joelaz1
join:2006-03-31
Folsom, CA

joelaz1

Member

Does not Surpise Me with the Kooks Running the City of SF

Just like the politicians running the City of SF to delay. They must be busy trying to figure out how to raise taxes to pay for this new free service in SF, or trying to figure out how they personally can financially benefit from this deal. Next, the liberal politicians will be leving a new city tax to fund laptops for all of the criminals and homeless in the City.
dagg
join:2001-03-25
Galt, CA

dagg

Member

gee...what a surprise

I wonder if Google/Smurflink will do the same thing that Mobile Pro did in sacramento and tell the city thanks but no thanks....
dan myers
join:2006-06-10
Fremont, CA

dan myers

Member

It was so much easier

dealing with the Chinese government making those customised searches for the good of the people. It will be a big improvement when they officially take over San Francisco.
russotto
join:2000-10-05
West Orange, NJ

russotto

Member

Delays....

IMO, there's two reasons for delays in government projects. One is just the slow-moving nature of government. The other is that someone is waiting for a kickback.

Customer support in Mandarin and Cantonese? Stuff that... this is the United States, speak Spanish dammit.