In August 2005 Mayor Gavin Newsom announced he was going to bring free wireless access to all San Franciscans through what he called TechConnect. He'd recently returned from Switzerland with the two brilliant young founders of Google on their private jet where there was talk of Google getting into new enterprises and partnerships with public agencies and governments. From that conversation we now have a contract between Earthlink-Google and San Francisco to provide Wi-Fi for a total of 16 years. The contract is signed and waiting for approval from the Board of Supervisors and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.
This being the year that Newsom faces re-election, it is extremely important to him and even more so to his handlers. But, what of we mere mortals – what does this deal mean to us?
The reason this contract is vitally important to all San Franciscans is that Wi-Fi is part of the 21st century infrastructure the future will be built on and we shouldn't blow this opportunity just to help elect a politician, no matter how good he is. The city granted a cable franchise agreement almost 50 years ago for the total sum of $1,500, which has been sold four times for more than $10 billion while bringing few jobs, taxes, or direct benefits to the city and its citizens. Around the time the mayor announced his bold and brave new TechConnect plan, he graced Comcast with a contract extension that many see as a sellout because the city received $3.6 million and no service enhancement or fee rollbacks or improved public access. This was less than most other cities that extended Comcast contracts.
San Francisco stands to gain as much as $300,000 annually the first four years of this exclusive Wi-Fi contract and will be locked into services that are almost extinct before we start. It's almost pitiful when one looks at the speed of connection being offered for free to the disabled, seniors, the impoverished, and youth communities most in need of this gateway to a better life. Most cities, including Philadelphia, which has many similarities to San Francisco, demanded and are receiving computers and training for those who most need them.
Other concerns that have been brought up by the American Civil Liberties Union, Media Alliance, and other public interest watchdog groups include issues such as privacy and security, which are being virtually abandoned in the name of doing good for those who can't do it for themselves, while giving them yesterday's tepid bathwater, so to speak.
It's estimated that Earthlink will invest between $10 million and $18 million to develop and own this exclusive monopoly in the same way telecom companies before owned the exclusive cable franchise rights that made them more profit than the oil companies the past few years, all at the expense of middle class citizens who have always paid too much for mediocre cable service to companies that bring little to the communities in which they operate. Global corporations have a duty to their shareholders and governments have a duty to their citizens. Politicians have the dubious luxury of choosing how much one side will give to have the support of the other and we call that good old boy politics.
Wi-Fi is a community resource that is worth more than a few million dollars and has the power to change and build communities, to educate and inform, to change cultural bias, and eliminate hopelessness for all of humanity at a nominal cost. We're at a crossroads once again, where we can act in the best interests of our citizens or let the money go into the pockets of corporate speculators, the already rich, politicians, and lobbyists.
I urge people to call their supervisor and ask them to vote no on the Earthlink-Google Wi-Fi deal that does so little for those who are in the most need of viable services, and to demand a better deal for all of us.
Stu Smith is a San Francisco resident.