And, I’m sorry, Tmobile says that it would step on the signal of phone service? Excuse me, aren’t we up to about BPSK? (That Bazillion Phase Shift Keying) If the signal is digital, use spread spectrum! Allll sorts of ways to get more signal on the bandwidth w/out stepping on anyone. All you need is a repeater w/ enough power & these are terrestrial…. right? They don’t sit up there in the Clarke Belt… where power is very limited…. right???

Security is an issue for me.
Yes, but why should it be paid for, ads or other wise

I would be nice if one of the isp or cell phone services could bundle free wifi with what ever I have now?

There must be several ways to buy free wifi, or have it pay for itself. Maybe websites them selves could pay for it, even at a penny a page per year, could easily pay for free wifi and that way everyone wins. More viewers and more access for those who benefit. And yes I’m a web designer with his own sites.

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But for a free basic service to check emails, and do a bit of simple browsing, then yeah, that would be handy for lunchtimes, but controlling the stuff people want to look at? Hmmm, that may be tricky, and I am sure some sites would go out of their way to try and get around it.

But any increase in free services to the net can only help get more people online.

There is a group here in sydney that do it. (free wifi) but when you log in, you get a page of advertising before you can continue browsing however you want. Which I think is the only way they will be able to afford to maintain the system.

What about rural folks stuck on dial-up…will they be reached? It’s hard to convince people to appreciate the internet when it’s so inaccessible, but if dial-up goes away so will the digital divide – I think that’s a very very good thing.

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Free Wi-fi would provide basic (not premium) access to the Web via personal computer, handheld or or portable computer when other options are not available. I spend a lot of time at parks in NYC that do have free Wi-fi in some spots, which is nice when I want to access email, news or other typical online content because I don’t have a mobile plan for my laptop and don’t want to shell out $10 a Starbucks to find out if my grandma emailed me today. However, I wouldn’t use this same service to download an album or to watch a hi-def movie. But like television, If you want premium service (or the option to access content not available on the free network) you have to pay.

It won’t be better than high-speed broadband and corporations would still require business class so the providers would not be out of consumers. And as for the content limitations, I can’t say I want outright censorship, but as an FCC regulated “free” bandwidth open to all taxpayers it is the prerogative of the government to limit use of these frequencies as they see fit. And personally, I would prefer that public Wi-fi bandwidth is not eaten up by every schmo with a laptop downloading porn or other frequency-intensive media.

Of course, whoever is in charge of determining which content is offensive will be up to ruling political party so it could be another way for right-wing politicos and “family values” proponents to limit exposure to questionable media, art and content. But you get what you pay for…

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