PALO ALTO, Calif.—The city of San Francisco selected EarthLink Inc. and Google Inc. to jointly build a citywide Wi-Fi network.
“We are thrilled that the San Francisco TechConnect Committee has selected the EarthLink proposal, and we look forward to taking the next step to negotiate a contract to build a municipal wireless broadband network,” said Donald Berryman, executive vice president of EarthLink and president of the company’s municipal networks business. “San Francisco is one of the most progressive cities in the world and our combined offerings with Google, Motorola and Tropos Networks will stretch the possibilities of what a mobile network can do for residents, businesses, municipal government and visitors. We look forward to getting started in building a solution that will bring the incredible possibilities to reality.”
Last year EarthLink and Google submitted separate proposals for San Francisco’s Wi-Fi network. Then, in February, the companies jointly submitted a proposal that suggested a Google-managed, ad-supported free network alongside an EarthLink-managed fee-based service.
Google already plans to build an advertising-funded Wi-Fi network for its home town of Mountain View, Calif., and EarthLink has been selected to build a network in Milpitas, Calif.
