Google and Earthlink Lead the Pack

Looks like San Fransisco is leaning towards the Google+Earthlink muni wirelss solution.

From Daily Wireless:

"The City of San Francisco's citywide wireless municipal network has identified Google and EarthLink as the best candidate for the ambitious city-wide WiFi project, reports the Associated Press.

The recommendation, completing a six-week review, allows the city to begin negotiations with Google and EarthLink, which decided to team together earlier this year after initially bidding against each other. The companies will pay to build the entire network, which is expected to cost at least $15 million."

From TechDirt:

"The real question will be just how willing the winners of these systems will be to open their networks up to others. In this deal, Earthlink is effectively opening up the network they would build to Google to offer a free, ad-supported WiFi that would in some ways compete with Earthlink's own cheap, but still fee-based, WiFi. This is also the same model Earthlink is using in Philadelphia, where it has won that city's "muni-WiFi" bid."