Along with San Francisco, major cities like Toronto and Philadelphia are moving ahead with plans to blanket their city in wireless. These plans take two main avenues. Some cities, such as St. Cloud, Fla., offer services free, with either the city government or advertising revenues footing the bill. Others, like Philadelphia, provide it at monthly or per-use costs. And other cities, like San Francisco and Toronto, plan to combine the two options. Google and Earthlink, in addition to their free service, plan to provide the Bay City with a faster, higher-quality connection at $20 per month. Toronto plans to offer free services for six months before switching to a paid system.

Still, various concerns have arisen over plans to build such wireless networks. There are inevitable technical problems with large-scale projects: Philadelphia’s wi-fi won’t work in many apartments and towers, and Google/Earthlink will have to work to avoid similar problems due to San Francisco’s hills and high-rises. Even in smaller towns like St. Cloud, residents complain about spotty service, often sticking to their original Internet provider.

But other, more serious concerns have cropped up as well. In San Francisco, the ACLU and two San Francisco-based groups jointly requested that the city rethink its plans, citing privacy concerns. They claim that the service is “non-consensual” because if users register and log in, Google could track them; Google argues that the requirements are necessary to combat spammers. At present, the debate’s outcome is unclear.

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