EarthLink and Google have teamed up and submitted a joint proposal to build the City of San Francisco citywide wireless municipal network, reports Om Malik. City officials did not release any details of the actual proposals or make them available Tuesday. They said a panel will review the bids and make recommendations by early April.
Customers shouldn’t be tied to their desks, or to a single provider, to get the Internet experience they want“, says Earthlink’s press release. “Both EarthLink and Google recognize this and are attempting to provide great service and choice in San Francisco. By coming together to leverage the strengths of both companies, we will be able to offer services to different customers on the network that fit with their own individual needs and wants”, quotes C/Net.
The two companies will apparently propose a two-tier business model - a combination of free and pay service. Google’s network will offer 256 kbps - 384 kbps connections for free. Earthlink on the other hand will offer a paid, citywide higher-speed service at 1 mbps, both upstream and down.
The two companies will share the cost of construction and operational expenses, reports Malik.
The bid was one of six received Tuesday evening. Other proposals were submitted by MetroFi, Communication Bridge Global, NextWlan, Razortooth Communications and SF Metro Connect, which is an alliance of SeaKay, Cisco Systems and IBM.
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