Free Wi-Fi for San Fran back on the menu

San Francisco’s long-delayed plan to bring free, citywide Wi-Fi coverage to its more than 800,000 residents seems to have been revived. Meraki Networks Inc. announced that it will deploy such a network throughout the city by the end of the year thanks to a new cash infusion of $20 million from venture capitalists and existing investors.
Meraki is employing a rather unique approach to the project, which frees it from much of the red tape and political shenanigans that stymied the previous plan by EarthLink Inc. and Google Inc. Meraki said its plan is cheaper as well. By convincing residents to install low-power radio repeaters on their rooftops, balconies and windows, Meraki said it doesn’t need the permits required to install transmitters on street poles and other public property.
Meraki’s “Free the Net” program launched in San Francisco last year and quickly grew to serve more than 40,000 customers in select neighborhoods by year’s end. The new project will simply ask residents throughout the city to help expand on that existing infrastructure by furthering its reach and propagation. Meraki said it’s been able to deliver almost 1 Mbps to every user.
The solar-powered distribution points are easy to install and reliable, the company said. Meraki will offer residents free repeaters as the network extends into new neighborhoods.
“This groundbreaking network in San Francisco will show the world that with Meraki’s unique approach to building networks, we can quickly bring broadband Internet access to every city in the world,” said Sanjit Biswas, CEO and co-founder of Meraki. “By expanding our San Francisco network we are creating the largest real-world test network of its kind, where we plan to develop new wireless networking technologies and also test the economics of free, ad-supported Internet access.”
Meraki says it will fund the entire project, a factor that became a major sticking point last year as the previous plan with Google and EarthLink fell apart. Meraki said it expects to have every San Francisco neighborhood up and running by mid-year.