Tag Archives: Earthlink

San Francisco

Earthlink’s Shock in SF WiFi market

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Hey, look, the LA Times noticed this morning that SF isn’t taking the Google/Earthlink deal as well as we should have.  I guess we’re ungrateful.

“We never thought it would be so hard to spend money in a city – or such a hard sell to give something away,” EarthLink Vice President Cole Reinwand said.

Of course, things are never as simple as corporations posit them to be, and truthfully, rarely as complicated as seen on the other side.  But, framing this debate as simply giving something away is awfully deceptive.  Sure, they are providing a free service, but will they rush to get it into the poorer neighborhoods so that the underlying goal, bridging the digital divide, can truly be attained? Again, I refer you to Left in SF for far more on this topic.

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SF Municipal Wifi debate

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I’m a bit out of reach these days, but I wanted to point out Sasha’s excellent work at Left in SF on the San Francisco municipal wireless debate. Check out all of his posts here and his wrapup of the debate here. There’s going to be a hearing on the program this afternoon, and I’ve heard Sasha will be involved. I know Google and Earthlink are fighting to preserve the sweetheart deal, but we need to do what’s best for The City, and whether that’s municipal wifi or GoogleFi, the residents of SF should come first.  Let’s just make sure we get  this right.

So, if you’re in SF, thank Sasha for doing such a great job for us on this issue.