Google / Earthlink’s Wi-fi Proposal
Om Malik reports that Google and Earthlink have teamed up to offer the city of San Francisco municipal wi-fi with options for paid and free services. Google will offer the free portion, with download speeds of 256-384 kbps, while Earthlink will charge for premium 1 mbps service. Considering that, barring bribery and/or mafia connections, the only way Google is losing is if there are better proposals from either MetroFi, Communication Bridge Global, NextWLAN, Razortooth Communications or SF Metro Connect (SeaKay, Cisco Systems and IBM).
So, with the exception of us heavy downloaders, who in the hell is paying for DSL or (shudder) dial-up with decent speeds for free? And how much could this be worrying local telcos, which will see not just subscribers for internet access plummet, but sales of wi-fi Skype phones go through the roof?
(via Chris Gilmer)
AT&T/Yahoo DSL (formerly SBC/Yahoo) must be shaking in their boots looking at this. It’s a matter of time before it rolls out everywhere. Hopefully they’ll either start cutting prices to get more customers now, or they will up the speeds. Either way, good for us.
Comment by Niraj | February 22, 2006
300 Kbps? Decent? That’s not what I would call it. I think 1 megabit is decent for browsing, seeing how bloated a whole lot of sites have become.
Of course, for a free connection, it’s probably generous, depending on the catch. (AdSense constantly displayed? Personal data required so that you’ll get more physical junk mail?)
I’m on a 2000/400kbps cable connection, and I’m satisfied with the download speed (upload sucks, though). Right now a lot of people here already have much faster connections, though.
Comment by Tim | February 22, 2006