SF Mayor sees Wireless Service as Basic Right

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said on Monday he considered wireless Internet access a fundamental right of all citizens. Mayor Newsom told a news conference that he was bracing for a battle with telephone and cable interests, along with state and U.S. regulators, whom he said were looking to derail a campaign by cities to offer free or low-cost municipal Wi-Fi services. Local officials are mulling plans to blanket every nook and cranny of this hilly city of 750,000 residents with Wi-Fi access. Officials said 24 proposals had been turned into the city to deliver wireless Internet services, ranging from Web search company Google, Cingular, the No. 1 U.S. wireless carrier, to Internet service provider EarthLink. Newsom told reporters he hoped to streamline the final bidding process and choose a contractor to build the city-wide wireless service in as little as five to six months. But a series of public hearings and city approval processes, as well as potential lawsuits by opponents, could drag the process out far longer, he cautioned. Making wireless access affordable to the entire population of San Francisco was a vital step to differentiating the city in order to make it more economically competitive on a state, national and global level, Newsom said. But the mayor also singled out the power of Wi-Fi as an alternative network to provide emergency information to all citizens in the event a natural disaster such as an earthquake were to strike the city and knock out other communications.
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Eric Auchard]

* Google faces obstacles in SF Wi-Fi bid
http://beta.news.com.com/Google+faces+obstacles+in+S.F.+Wi-Fi+bid/2100-7351_3-5887919.html?tag=nefd.lede