Request for assistance in San Francisco in advocating for Community Based wifi solution

[Kimo Crossman]

if anyone has contacts in SF or can write articles or letters to the editor it would be greatly appreciated
 
reply to 
 
sfbroadband at lists.sfbroadband.com
 
 
For some history on the status of the SF situation you can read postings at http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/sfwireless/  

The vote at the Board of Supervisors is going to be very close especially because of the recently released independent Budget Analyst study which was very negative of the process followed by the city so far.

See here:

http://www.sfgov.org/site/budanalyst_index.asp?id=4425  

Thank you in advance

Kimo crossman

415-255-8035

Bruce Wolfe

415-867-5995 (cell)

Erik Brooks

415-756-8844

For Release: Contact: Bruce Wolfe (SFPO), 415-867-5995

Tuesday, January 23, 2007 Eric Brooks (Our City), 415-756-8844

Coalition Demands That City Reject Google/Earthlink Monopoly Deal and Instead Give San Franciscans Truly Free, High Speed, Public Internet

Today, Public Net San Francisco, a coalition of various community groups and internet professionals, insisted that the City of San Francisco cancel the pending Google/Earthlink monopoly WiFi deal, and instead use the City's existing high speed fiber optic network as the backbone to build a truly modern, fast, and free, public communications system.

Groups releasing the statement included the San Francisco People's Organization (SFPO), Our City, the community wireless network SFLan, and Internet services provider United Layer.

Their statement follows closely on the heels of a report just released by the San Francisco Budget Analyst's Office, which makes clear that the Google/Earthlink deal will result in an inferior monopoly franchise that will give San Franciscans much slower access than nearly all other cities providing municipal Internet, and more importantly, will fail to serve the intended core goal of the project - to make certain that all San Franciscans, regardless of their income, get free fast and equal access to the Internet.

The report states that the Department of Telecommunications and Information Services (DTIS) acted far too hastily in adopting the monopoly deal, without seeking sufficient input from the public, and notably failing to include possibilities for using over 42 miles of city owned fiber optic cable to build a much more robust system, that could be owned by the public, and could provide all San Franciscans with free Internet service at a least ten times faster access speeds than the Google/Earthlink plan.

Said Bruce Wolfe of the San Francisco People's Organization, "I don't get it. DTIS spent over a year coming up with this plan and it doesn't even serve its primary goal of making sure that everybody in San Francisco, regardless of income, gets free and equal internet access. Smooth video, and clear phone calls, are becoming basic uses of the internet. This deal provides neither to nonpaying users, leaving them in the digital dust."

Eric Brooks with the local grassroots organization Our City stated, "After nearly a century of San Franciscans suffering rip-offs and incredibly bad service under the monopoly control of our public utilities by corporations like PG&E, Comcast, and AT&T, it amazes me that DTIS can stand there with a straight face and try to convince us that we should let a multinational corporate partnership own and control our new public communications system."

Tim Pozar with United Layer, the internet services provider that installed a free Internet system for users in San Francisco's Alice Griffiths housing project, stated, "The Budget Analyst's report shows clearly what we have been saying to the City for over a year now. If we go for municipal ownership of a system that makes use of all the City's public assets, including the high speed ring of fiber optic cable lying only half used right under our feet, we can get a vastly superior, and 10 to 100 times faster system, than the clunker being offered to us by Earthlink and Google."

Ralf Muehlen, who already provides free internet access to hundreds of San Franciscans through the nonprofit community wireless network SFLan concluded, "The big problem with the Earthlink system is that it uses a slow, wireless-only backbone that cannot accommodate even today's needs let alone the needs of the next 16 years. 300 kilobits per second is so 1997; it'll be utterly ridiculous in 2023, which is how long Earthlink's monopoly will last. Earthlink has little incentive to upgrade, and their non-fiber backbone has no spare capacity. A hybrid network, that uses both wireless and existing fiber can support much higher speeds and is more robust. We already paid for the City's fiber with our taxes, we should now put it to good use."

Endorsing Organizations

San Francisco People's Organization - 2940 16th St. #314, SF, CA 94103, http://www.sfpeople.org 

Contact: Bruce Wolfe, 415-867-5995, bruce at brucewolfe.net

Our City - 1028-A Howard St., SF, CA 94103, http://our-city.org 

Contact: Eric Brooks, 415-756-8844, info at our-city.org

SFLan - 116 Sheridan Ave., SF, CA 94129, http://www.sflan.org 

Contact: Ralf Muehlen, 415-242-4591, sflan+press at muehlen.com

United Layer - 200 Paul Ave. #110, SF, CA 94124, http://www.unitedlayer.com  

Contact: Tim Pozar, 415-637-8512, pozar at barwn.org

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