Google offers to fund wireless hotspots in San Francisco

Google is offering US$600,000 to set up free wireless Internet hotspots in 31 public spaces in San Francisco, but city officials said they need to review annual maintenance costs before it could be approved.

Google has previously funded public wireless projects in its home city of Mountain View, California, in New York Chelsea’s neighbourhood and around Boston’s South Station. The search giant is based 30 miles away from San Francisco but employs hundreds of workers who commute from the city.

San Francisco officials say public Internet service is long overdue for a city that has eclipsed Silicon Valley as the epicentre of the startup ecosystem in recent years, attracting a dramatic influx of venture capital investment and young tech workers.

“There are cities not only here in the US but in many, many foreign countries where free WiFi is ubiquitous. We have a lot of work to do,” Supervisor Mark Farrell, who spearheaded the negotiations with Google, said by telephone Wednesday.

Mission Dolores Park, the weekend mecca of San Francisco’s young tech crowd, would be among the areas covered by the plan, as would tourist destinations including Alamo Square as well as Washington Square in North Beach. Some less affluent areas such as the historic Portsmouth Square in Chinatown and the Tenderloin Recreation Center would also be included.

In a statement, Google executive Veronica Bell said the company hopes the free WiFi will be “a resource that the city and other local groups will be able to use in their efforts to bridge the digital divide and make their community stronger.”