San Jose's "Free" WiFi Bogged Down in Access Concerns

A forum on San Joe's new WiFi system resulted in a lot of concerns over privacy, ID theft, rural access, and underserved residents. The bottom line is that WiFi is bringing up more issues than it solves. WiFi is never really secure (even WPA2 keys can be cracked relatively easily), you can't throw the signals far enough to reach low-population areas, and even making it free can't make people happy. The lesson to be learned is that the "free" service is exactly what you pay for: service is not guaranteed, you might have to purchase a signal booster for as much as $120, and the speeds aren't likely to be as competitive as cable or DSL especially when comparing prices. Sounds like San Jose is preparing itself to become Silicon Alley by not investing in the future that is FTTP.

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