Rodent Regatta

Read with interest the news that San Francisco wants a wifi cloud. Lots of cities do. When it gets right down to it, though, which companies have the capability, financing and technical relationships to pull off something in such a tricky topographic region as San Francisco?

For a short list (i.e. 26 companies) that might make the cut, take a look at the list of companies that responded to SF’s Request for Information. That’s RFI, not RFP. As I understand municipal bidding, there’s a rather significant distinction. I suspect responses to the RFI may lead to an even shorter list of companies that are offered an RFP. (Just a hunch).

It’s also interesting to note that Cisco is in the hunt with a partner, but not alone, but HP is apparently there and ready to go to work.

Reading about Korea, I conclude that the USA needs a wifi cloud from coast to coast and north to south. Don’t make it some 300kbps nonsense, either. We need a plan for 10Mbps. Yeah, I know, it’s the physics. But, get the minds at Google and Level 3 together and the problem won’t be intractable.