Meraki enables free public Wi-Fi in San Francisco
Meraki, a Mountain View company that sells inexpensive wireless nodes, is leading a grassroots effort to bring more free public Wi-Fi access to the city. People frustrated with the Board of Supervisors delaying the EarthLink network are starting to take matters into their own hands. Meraki, a Mountain View company that sells inexpensive wireless nodes, is leading a grassroots effort to bring more free public Wi-Fi access to the city. People frustrated with the Board of Supervisors delaying the EarthLink network are starting to take matters into their own hands.
Sanjit Biswas, founder of Meraki, sent me a link to their SF network status map.
Sanjit says: “The network’s been growing organically since we announced it last month, but we’ve already seen over 1000 people use it (even with only 30 operating nodes).”
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Esme, your claim that the Board of Supervisors is delaying the Earthlink contract is simply not true.
The Board cannot vote on the contract until the Office of the Controller completes an economic impact analysis (which the Controller’s office, not the Board, determined was necessary, see http://www.sfgov.org/site/uploadedfiles/controller/oea/20070326MEMO070077PDv2.pdf)
And Meraki’s effort (for which I have the highest esteem) is only grassroots if you pay no attention to the Google behind the curtain. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Actually, the Meraki effort is yet more evidence that San Francisco doesn’t need to enter what is effectively a 16-year contract with Earthlink for an expensive, top-down approach. Meraki is showing how easy and inexpensive it is to put free wifi where people want it, no?
I must agree with Becca. I work in the wireless industry in Silicon Valley, I am a resident of San Francisco and I am also a participant in the SF Free the Net project. This definitely shows how a bottom up approach kicks the pants off of the top down approach. Most SF residents have internet access and can re-purpose the “left-over” bandwidth to provide access for the rest who do not (http://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/news/2007/04/wifiproject_0403?currentPage=all).
These Mesh nodes go up in minutes and they “Just Work”. They automatically glom onto other nodes and repeat the signal. I have been very impressed with the technology.
Wireless mesh has been on my dartboard for a few years however the lack of standards and the cost of the hardware increased deployment costs. We have tested three Meraki nodes and the results have been very positive. In fact, I love these little things! They are a little quirky and they still have a few bugs, but the core of these radios is solid and for $50….…an awesome value. And Meraki, unlike FON will be better able to address any pressure from the “wired” incumbent’s enforcement of excessive use policies and other broadband restrictions. The inside out approach of Meraki highlights that fact that a higher power radio is not always the answer.