San Francisco's Step Forward Towards Muni-WiFi
There were rumors that San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom was going to announce his plans for muni-WiFi covering the city today. It wasn’t quite that much — as he basically just said that they were still going to do it. The announcement today was basically asking for proposals (which can come from private companies) to build the system using WiFi and possibly other technologies. The interesting part, though, is that the timeframe is fairly ambitious. Newsom wants proposals in by the end of September and wants to launch the service within 90 to 120 days afterwards — which might be a bit too aggressive. It will be interesting to see how hard incumbents fight this muni offering, as Newsom took the first step in making it clear that he’ll stand up to any companies that try to fight him on the plan.
