San Francisco residents will be happy to hear that they now have free Wi-Fi in public areas, and they have Google to thank.
The search giant has formed a partnership with S.F. to bring the service to 32 of the city's parks, plazas, and open spots, according to PC Magazine. The equipment, upkeep and installation costs for the system will be covered for the next two years by Google's $608,000 grant, and the city will take over financial obligations afterwards.
The amount of hotspots established gives residents numerous options for places to stream their favorite shows online. The speeds being provided by the #SFWiFi networks have so far been reported to be fast, allowing residents to download 10-15 megabits per second and upload between 7-10 Mbps.
"This network will make the Web more accessible than ever for thousands of our neighbors - getting online is as easy as heading to the local park," Rebecca Prozan, manager of public policy and government affairs at Google.
Supervisor Mark Farrell said careful choices were made about which parks would become hotspots, as making sure free Wi-Fi is accessible across the city evenly was a major priority, SFGate reported. Making sure the service is available in areas with high traffic is also important for the two partners, as is giving free Wi-Fi to low-income families.
"From my perspective, this is just the beginning - internet access is no longer a luxury; I believe it's a necessity," Farrell said. "This is about economic empowerment, and what drives me is that communities that have not had internet access before will now be able to be online all the time. It's the beginning of a broader vision of ensuring everybody in San Francisco has Internet access."
Google and San Francisco also made it clear that monitoring what individuals are doing on the Wi-Fi network is not a focus of their partnership, PC Magazine reported. Stability, performance, and connect speeds will be the only things that the two partners will be tracking in the new free service.
