Last week, the city of San Francisco reviewed six final proposals for building a wireless network across the entire city. In the end, they chose Google and EarthLink’s concept. The team will begin discussions with San Francisco about the specific terms of the contract for the service.
Officials of the city of San Francisco say the $10-15 million deal will bridge the gap between the rich and poor residents of the city. The arrangement is currently set to run for 10 years.
It is expected that Web users in San Francisco will be able to choose from “tiers” of the WiFi service. The first tier will be free, and will enable users to access a 300-Kbps over 802.11 b/g wireless connections in exchange for seeing a few Google ads on their computer screen. The second tier will be offered for approximately $20 per month, and will offer users a 1-Mbps connection, courtesy of EarthLink. Another tier will be available to businesses, and will give them a 3-Mbps along with a guaranteed quality of service. These prices and approximations are not yet set in stone.
EarthLink is also claiming that they will offer a “T1 replacement” to current users, or an emergency network in case of network outages.
Before last week’s announcement, Google had only agreed to help with the installation of relevant equipment throughout the city, including antennas. Google was slated to utilize this in its endeavor to deliver an ad-supported free WiFi network for San Francisco. The Mountain View giant was to pay the city for the use of utility poles and any other locations they would use to install its WiFi equipment. Since then, this part of the plan is now in the hands of EarthLink.
In terms of customer service, EarthLink will bear most of the burden. Google has agreed to provide support to first tier users through e-mail response and an online help center. However, if there is a network outage or some other large issue exists, Google has the option of placing the burdens of support to EarthLink.
This deal also gives Google the opportunity to test out its recently patented advertising model which will focus on location-based advertisements. Regarding location-based ads, Google says that it will greatly benefit smaller, local businesses that may not be able to afford more traditional means of advertising. They will be able to take advantage of the affordable and effective advertising services that this location-based advertising opportunity presents.
Though Google has claimed that they will not take on any similar projects outside of the San Francisco Bay Area, EarthLink’s CEO says that the two companies are eyeing a second WiFi project.
EarthLink will use this opportunity in San Francisco to cement itself at the forefront of current municipal WiFi providers.
As expected, there are murmurs of privacy concerns with Google and EarthLink’s plans to deploy a city-wide WiFi service in San Francisco. Since accessing this network would require a user to log into their Google account, Google would instantly know who the user is and where they are logging in from. This stirs fear in the minds of those who think that this creates the potential for privacy concerns.
However, as Danny Sullivan, Editor at Search Engine Watch notes, this is nothing new. Whenever someone accesses their WiFi service, the service provider knows where they are. ISPs keep records of what a user searches for. It is virtually impossible to avoid privacy concerns if you are using the Internet, and despite the constant concerns related to Google, Web users should also consider the privacy issues related to ISPs.
Sources:
http://www.webpronews.com/insiderreports/searchinsider/
wpn-49-20060406GoogleEarthLinkWinSFWiFiDeal.html
http://www.informationweek.com/industries/showArticle.
jhtml?articleID=184429774&articleID=184429774&sa_type=
§ion=industries&subSection=News+By+Vertical+Industry
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060410-084730
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