vB Easy Archive - Free Wi-Fi coming to Silicon Valley, CA

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Free Wi-Fi coming to Silicon Valley, CA
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Posted by: RF9

This year Google blanketed Mountain View, CA (the town of their headquarters) with free Wi-Fi service. According to this story the counties SF bay area will be blanketed with free 1Mbps Wi-Fi, as well as faster pay service. It may also be supplemented by WiMAX eventually.

(Story is below if you want to skip my ramblings)

So why am I posting in the PDA forum? This is huge news. It means that if you have a PDA with Wi-Fi, you should be able to tap in to this instead of EDGE or HSDPA, or even drop that data plan all together if you don't need it when away from home.

If coverage is really seamless enough, you could simply set your data connection to local free Wi-Fi 90% of the time. You might even be able to use VOIP without violating Cingular's T&C (which forbids VOIP, not that that would stop you.)

I personally am excited about this, and it reinforces my requirement for WiFi to be built in to my next PDA phone (Probably the 8525 or Samsung i607.)

Here's the story....
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http://www.rcrnews.com/news.cms?newsId=27226

Silicon Valley to be blanketed by Wi-Fi
By Joni Morse
Sep 6, 2006

SAN JOSE, Calif.—Free Wi-Fi is coming to 2.4 million Silicon Valley residents by way of Silicon Valley Metro Connect, a consortium that counts IBM Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc. as members. The consortium beat out several other bidders, including VeriLAN and MetroFI, for the task of unwiring 38 cities in California’s San Mateo, Santa Clara, Alameda and Santa Cruz counties.
SVMC said the 802.11b/g-based Wi-Fi network will be built using mesh wireless equipment from Cisco and network design and integration services from IBM. The network is expected to be up and running in some areas by next year. However, it will take several years for the network to be fully built out, as it will include thousands of access points covering 1,500 square miles.

Azulstar Networks will act as the network and service operator, though cities can also work with other providers if they wish. California-based SeaKay, a nonprofit firm that works to provide Internet access in low-income areas, is set to spearhead digital inclusion programs that will customize the network to meet local needs.
SVMC’s proposal provides 1 megabit-per-second data speeds for free alongside a fee-based service with higher throughput speeds, video streaming and voice over Wi-Fi. SVMC said the network could eventually be used by first responders and other government bodies. Additionally, the consortium said it may also add WiMAX capabilities to the network at some point.

Google has already launched free Wi-Fi service in its hometown of Mountain View, which is located in Santa Clara County.

Posted by: thatchmaster

We've had this in Sunnyvale for a while now as well.

-Erik

Posted by: huzefa

Hell, why would you even need Cingular service at all? Just get a free Skype # and use voip all the time!

Posted by: RF9

I know Google's Mountain View deployment doesn't work so well indoors (intentionally.) So depending on how this is set up, the coverage in and out of buildings may not be so seamless. By you're right, You might be able to use Skype a lot, and only have to use Cingular in certain situations. I think it also really depends on when and now WiMAX gets mixed in, if it'll be 'free' and how the devices will take advantage of it.
It'll be fun check out going forward.

I didn't know Sunnyvale was all free Wi-Fi. I'll have to head over there and check it out.