MuniWireless

Golden Gate Ferries has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for Wi-Fi service on board the ferries between San Francisco and Sausalito as well as Larkspur. Golden Gate Ferries will not pay any money for the deployment of the network, but will allow the Wi-Fi operator to charge for the service. The term of the contract is five years with two additional one-year options to extend the agreement. The deadline for submitting responses is 11 August 2009 at 14:00 Pacific…

Although the dream of accessing Wi-Fi everywhere in San Francisco is almost dead, San Franciscans can at least get free Wi-Fi access in city hall while they’re waiting outside the Legislative Chamber and the Supervisors’ offices. The Board of Supervisors and Department of Technology (DT) in collaboration with San Francisco’s Potrero Hill based Meraki, have launched a pilot public access initiative that will start on 23 June 2009 and continue through June 2010.

“I am thrilled we are taking the lead to…

This is an update to my earlier article in which I reported that the BART Wi-Fi network was in jeopardy because of lack of funding. Glenn Fleishman posted a comment to the article saying that Wi-Fi Rail, the company installing the network for BART, called him to say that the project is still on track and that they have “raised the money they need for the next 12 months.” (Wifinetnews)

Like everything in this space, which has been hyped beyond the…

The Bay Area Rapid Transit in the San Francisco Bay Area may not be installing a Wi-Fi network on its trains after all. The San Francisco Examiner reports that Wi-Fi Rail, the company hired by BART to install the network, does not have sufficient funds. Wi-Fi Rail says however that BART has not yet signed the contract so it’s hard for them to raise money, especially in this environment.

Like many online publications, I got the Meraki press release whose title reads “MERAKI ANNOUNCES FREE PUBLIC WIFI AVAILABLE IN 80% OF SAN FRANCISCO NEIGHBORHOODS”. When you look at the Meraki map of users (below) you will see that Meraki does not cover 80% of San Francisco at all.

Large areas of the Sunset District have no Meraki network (unless of course you consider 14 people all clumped in one location to be meaningful coverage). Other areas with barely any Meraki…

While Naperville, Illinois has said no to free Wi-Fi, San Francisco is forging ahead, this time riding on the coattails of Meraki, a Mountain View based company, whose goal is to cover the city with free Wi-Fi access. Meraki has begun providing free Wi-Fi service to the Altamont Hotel and Dunleavy Plaza, two of the city’s low-income housing projects. They plan to extend coverage to other areas in the city. Already parts of the Mission, Noe Valley and Bernal Heights…