SF Wi-Fi plan faces key votes

San Francisco city officials could bring the city’s proposed Wi-Fi network closer to reality at two meetings this week as a key leader proposes significant changes to the plan.

The network, to be run by EarthLink, has been closely watched because it is one of the biggest of many proposed municipal networks in the U.S. and because it would include a free service offered by Google. The city would sell EarthLink access to some of its streetlight poles and other locations for Wi-Fi access points. Some leaders and activists in the famously liberal city have slammed the deal on issues including privacy and service and called for a network owned by the city.

On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors will reconsider an April decision by the city’s Planning Department to exempt the network from an environmental review. The San Francisco Neighborhood Antenna-Free Union (SNAFU) appealed the April ruling, saying the access points could cause health problems. The board could let the Planning Department’s decision stand, strike it down or decide to study the issue further.

On Wednesday, the Board’s Budget and Finance committee will vote on the full Wi-Fi proposal. Unless the vote Tuesday requires an environmental review, the only remaining hurdle then would be a vote by the full board. The Budget and Finance panel will hear proposals by board President Aaron Peskin that may boost support for the politically troubled plan. Both the mayor’s office and EarthLink are aware of the proposals, Peskin said in an e-mail interview. The mayor’s office seems to approve of them, but Peskin doesn’t know where EarthLink stands.

Peskin’s ideas affect aspects of the proposed contract that have drawn much of the fire. Key points include:

– Increase the speed of the free service from 300Kbps to 500Kbps. (A service priced at about $20 per month would still deliver 1Mbps.)

– Provide for user privacy on the free service.

– Add an enforceable requirement that the network provide adequate service in all areas of the city.

– Shorten the maximum term of the contract from 16 to eight years and let the city buy the network at full market value at that time. As it stands, the contract initially would be for four years and could be renewed three times, an eternity in the world of wireless technology.

– Ensure the city is properly compensated for giving EarthLink access to its light poles.

The city and EarthLink settled on the terms of a contract in January. It gave EarthLink the right to pull out if the plan wasn’t approved by the Board within 180 days. That time has passed, according to EarthLink spokesman Jerry Grasso, but the company hasn’t given up. The plan calls for building a two-square mile test network first before deploying the whole system.