San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who became internationally known for his campaign a year ago to legalise gay marriage, on October 03 said he considered wireless Internet access a fundamental right of all citizens.
Officials said 24 proposals had been turned into the city to deliver wireless Internet services, ranging from Web search company Google Inc, Cingular, the No 1 US wireless carrier, to Internet service provider EarthLink Inc.
Newsom told a news conference that he was bracing for a battle with telephone and cable interests along with state and federal regulators who he said are looking to derail a campaign by cities to offer free or low-cost municipal Wi-Fi services.
Wi-Fi is a short-range wireless technology that is now built into most laptop computers and is increasingly offered on handheld computers and certain mobile phones. Local officials are mulling plans to blanket every nook and cranny of this hilly city of 750,000 residents with universal Wi-Fi access.
"This is inevitable - Wi-Fi. It is long overdue," Newsom told a news conference at San Francisco's City Hall. "It is to me a fundamental right to have access universally to information," he said.
Newsom said he hoped to streamline the final bidding process and arrive at a contractor to build the city-wide wireless service. That may take as little as five months to six months, he told reporters. But a series of public hearings, city approval processes, as well as potential lawsuits by opponents could drag the process out far longer, he cautioned.