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Posted on 12/03/2005 9:13:09 AM PST by nickcarraway
Mountain View-based MetroFi is expected to announce today that it plans to bring free, advertising-supported wireless Internet service to all 130,000 residents of Sunnyvale.
The network has already been installed in areas serving about a third of households in the 24-square-mile city. Those citizens can get free online access using MetroFi's network if their computers can pick up wireless Internet, or WiFi, signals. The rest of the city's residential and business districts will be able to access the network by spring, MetroFi Chief Executive Chuck Haas said.
For free access, customers must accept a half-inch advertising strip -- much like ``banner'' ads commonly found on Web pages -- at the top of their Web browser at all times. MetroFi plans to run local and national ads on the service, but will not track the browsing habits of its customers, Haas said. The only thing MetroFi will know is that their customers are in Sunnyvale, ``which is valuable to local advertisers.''
MetroFi has already installed WiFi networks in Santa Clara and Cupertino, but residents there pay $19.95 per month. However, they are not required to keep any portion of their screen clear for advertising while they browse the Internet. The speed at which information travels on those cities' networks -- 1 megabit per second for downloads and 256 kilobits per second for uploads, comparable to typical DSL speeds -- is the same on the new Sunnyvale network.
Haas said he considers the Sunnyvale project a test, and if it works well, MetroFi will offer the free, advertising-supported service to Santa Clara and Cupertino, in addition to the fee-based one. The company hadn't developed the technology to bring a free network to those cities before, he said.
``I think we'll have customers that take both services,'' he said. ``Rather than limiting our market to just free or just paid, we have the best of both worlds.''
MetroFi uses a technology called mesh networking, where hundreds of transmitters installed on street-light poles create Internet hotspots like those found at many coffee shops.
Anyone within 250 to 500 feet of a transmitter can access the Internet -- as long as their computers can pick up WiFi signals. Data travels along the network via radio waves. But signals degrade when they pass through walls, so it's recommended that residents buy an amplifier device for rooms farther from the outer wall. Those cost about $60, Haas said.
MetroFi is one of several companies in the running to build a WiFi network in San Francisco. Both MetroFi and Web search engine Google, also headquartered in Mountain View, have offered to do so for free. Both companies propose using advertising to cover the costs.
Last month, Google also won approval from the city of Mountain View to build a free WiFi network across that city. There was no mention of advertising in a city report that examined the deal.
ping
Nothing's free.
MO' Free Stuff!
Now if they'd only bring it to my rural locale, where both the cable and DSL services are so awful the neighbors are considering class-action lawsuits. Then I could drop my 26 kbps dialup.
Blocklist:
IP address: 64.156.212.114
Alias:
prod-1.oss.metrofi.net
Sounds like an identity thief's paradise...
Here in Spokane we have had two hours free access WiFi in the downtown core with no ads for over a year now.
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