Editorial Page Editorial Page (February 10, 2006)

Think twice about city-sponsored wireless

City Councilman Steve Brozosky and some members of a Pleasanton Downtown Association committee talked enthusiastically a week ago about a budding plan by the council to take the city wireless, that is, to allow any wireless-capable laptop capable of signing on to the Internet or e-mail from anywhere in Pleasanton. Already, cities across the country and some in California have developed wireless zones in much of their communities that make connections available from any kitchen or garage or car, not just from crowded Starbucks like we find today. San Francisco has become so wireless-attached that it now has more "hot spots," which wireless-capable districts are called, that it leads the country with more hookups per capita than any major city in the world. Imagine our downtown, jammed with laptops and Blackberries signing on to their favorite Internet site while enjoying a pizza or checking to see if the deposit they just made at a downtown bank is now in their account. Favorite people-watching spots such as Tully's Plaza would be jammed with chat room "talkers." Even the bikers would have something to do besides stand around.

To be sure, we've already started wireless programs in Pleasanton. Our three middle schools are equipped and students must now purchase laptops to receive their assignments, teacher messages and help. Teachers and students are now learning what the corporate workforce discovered several years ago: Cell phones and laptops keep us working long after we've left the office as the boss's new ideas come at us across the airwaves.

Brozosky's plan would sell space to a winning bidder who could provide and maintain a citywide wireless operation with space provided on city-owned light poles, even overhead traffic signals. Unlike cellular phone transmitting towers that residential neighborhoods often resist--which require obstacle-free sending and receiving sites--these wireless connections could be on as many poles and building corners as needed, anywhere in the city. A laptop user could drive (or hopefully be a passenger with someone else driving) down any street with an uninterrupted connection.

Even so, Daniel Weintraub, writing in the Sacramento Bee, cautions that cities should think twice about publicly-sponsored wireless and Internet access. With Google--the Internet search giant that makes most of its money selling advertising--offering free Internet access in exchange for a link to advertising, a wireless vendor armed with a city-granted monopoly might do the same, even advertising shops and restaurants in, heaven forbid, Dublin. Another concern is security. A few of us, I'll bet, already have discovered the widespread availability of connecting to someone else's wireless that's not password-protected, as the school district's is. If your office or apartment is next door to a wireless server, you might be able to sign on. Check your bank account, as mentioned above, and someone else may be "listening" in. Few of us are technologically savvy enough to figure how to do this, but with identification theft and viruses that can reach into your home computer so prevalent, there are those out there who can pick up a wireless message quickly. Then there are the "Big Brother" concerns that we're wrestling with over the federal government's electronic eavesdropping. Of course, it's a long jump from using wireless at Tully's to "listening" for terrorists in Washington ... or is it?

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