Yesterday Google and Earthlink beat out 5 other companies to be the front runners in building a free WiFi network in San Francisco. What is WiFi?

WiFi, which stands for Wireless Fidelity, is simply a wireless local area network that enables a person to connect to the Internet, browse on websites, and receive e-mails. These areas are known as hotspots.

Normal hotspots usually would be a hotel or cafe, but this deal will enable a larger part of San Francisco to become one huge WiFi hotspot.

The Google team: Google, Earthlink, Motorola and Tropos Networks had to beat out bids from other companies such as etroFi Inc., Razortooth Communications LLP, NextWLAN Corp., Communications Bridge Global Inc. and SF Metro Connect.

The team now needs to negotiate a contract with the city of San Francisco before any further progress. Google and its partners plan on offering a two tier WiFi plan. The basic WiFi access would be free while a higher speed access would charge the user and be managed by Earthlink.

The free version would have a speed that would be faster than dial-up (Oh man let’s not go there) and slower than broadband. Google would manage this service and it is expected that it would be ad supported.

Earthlink will likely charge $20 per month for the high speed connection.

The project is expected to be completed within 8 months of a successful contract negotiation.

A similar idea is being put through in Toronto and it will be interesting to see if it receives a WiFi network. Toronto is home to the Canada’s stock exchange and it will likely follow suit with the many American cities in the near future (though I doubt Google will be involved).

[via Information Week]

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