Meraki Promises Free Wi-Fi in San Francisco

After Google and Earthlink gave up on free Wi-Fi in San Francisco, startup company Meraki hopes to get Bay Area residents to put repeaters on their roofs and in their homes.

Maybe being near Silicon Valley has a way of altering one’s perspective, but few municipalities have flirted with the idea of offering free Wi-Fi Internet access to its residents more than San Francisco. Google got Wi-Fi up and running in Mountain View, but then demurred on extending the system to San Fransisco, noting they were a search engine company, not an ISP. Then Earthlink—and actual ISP!—took up the cause, only to back out of many of its planned municipal Wi-Fi projects in an effort to cut costs.

Now, start-up company Meraki plans to step in where the big boys refuse to play by persuading Bay Area residents to install repeaters on their roofs and in their homes. The hope is that by extending the reach of the Wi-Fi network organically through private citizens and businesses, Meraki can avoid the bureaucratic snafus and public access issues that scuttled plans to install wireless routers and gear on utility poles and other public property.

Meraki initially announced plans to build out a community Wi-Fi network in San Francisco back in March 2007, and says it has given out more than 500 repeaters which are currently providing service to about 40,000 people in a roughly two-mile square area of San Francisco. Now, with an additional $20 million from venture capitalists, Meraki is setting out to unwire the city’s remaining 47 square miles—and that means giving away another ten to fifteen thousand repeaters.

Meraki doesn’t plan to earn money from operating a Wi-Fi network in San Francisco, either by selling subscriptions or advertising on the service. Instead, the company plans to make its money by selling its Wi-Fi and mesh networking technologies in developing countries.