Google to Provide Frisco with Free Broadband?

Wonder what this will cost the citizens?

Google's bid was a response to a request for proposals from San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's office to provide the service for the city's 800,000 users, Google spokesman Nate Tyler confirmed on Saturday.

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It was unclear when city officials would decide whom to choose from a group of bids, but reports said the service is expected to begin next year.

"It is also an opportunity to make San Francisco a test-ground for new location-based applications and services that enable people to find relevant information exactly when and where they need it," Tyler said. "We anticipate that the services we develop on this network will ultimately benefit end users and Google partners."

That prospect has some people concerned. "They will know much more information about your activities" than they can glean from a stationary PC, Ira Victor, managing partner for security information firm Data Clone Labs, said in an interview.

"There are still a lot of unanswered questions, the most important being related to privacy," wrote blogger Charles Jade on the Ars Technica Web site. "Will Google be watching users? It's unlikely a city like San Francisco with a large contingent of professional protesters and unreconstructed communists would support such a compromise, but we will know shortly."

Many others, however, said Google's involvement will shake up a telecom industry that has been slow to react to the Internet and reluctant to be price-conscious.

The mayor wants to provide the access for "free."

QandO has interesting commentary on the "psuedo-right" that the mayor Gavin Newsom seems to think the citizenry needs. Makes you wonder who is going to actually pay for it though.