San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee has this week announced that free wi-fi will now be available in the city, according to theverge.com.
The technology will mean that the quarter-million people who regularly walk through the city’s Market Street will now have access to internet speeds of up to 50 Mbps. Those who wish to use the service will have to sign in using the ‘_San_Francisco_Free_WiFi’ connection.
A fibre-optic cable which runs under the street has made the connection possible, as well as networking equipment installed on existing infrastructure along the road. The technology came to a cost of $500,000 (£305,530) to the city and county of San Francisco. This relatively low cost was made available thanks to donations from local network providers.
The move means that the city is now one of the best connected in the US, seeing as free wi-fi is also offered in San Francisco International Airport, as well as in 31 of the city’s public parks and plazas.
The city tried to work with company AT&T back in 2012 to install free wi-fi to the area, however this fell through. Talking to cedmagazine.com about city bosses installing the technology by themselves, Marc Touitou, San Francisco’s chief information officer, said: “It was simpler, faster, better to do it on our own. The quality is higher, with the technical design by the Department of Technology.”
