PeoplePC says its Connect for Less service is available for $7.95 a month or about 25 cents per day and it offers unlimited dial-up Internet access at 20 percent less than it competitors.

Kevin Brand

"Staying connected to the Internet is very important, especially during these uncertain and challenging economic times. For a limited time, EarthLink will offer consumers a new, low-cost Internet access option," said Kevin Brand, EarthLink’s senior vice president of product management.

"Whether your job has been impacted and you need to search for employment or you surf the Web for bargains on household necessities, Internet dial access, with our Smart Dialer technology, continues to be an effective and inexpensive tool."

Connect for Less customers will have access to more than 12,000 dial-up numbers nationwide, email with spam controls and virus protection powered by Symantec, two email addresses and free Internet call waiting.

To promote the service, the 795th person to sign up for Connect for Less will receive the $7.95 per month service free for one year. The offer will be repeated for each additional 795th person who signs up.
 

Don’t get me wrong; I’m all in favor of MuniFi. Companies like Google and Earthlink are truly visionary, in my opinion, for having the drive to pursue such an undertaking.

The problem, however, seems to lie in that of political opposition and logistical setup. While there’s no cure for politics, there could be a way to get around the logistical obstacles that have held back widespread MuniFi adoption…

Power lines.

Think about this; our power lines offer an already existing infrastructure within which to operate, greatly reducing the cost and time it would take to create entirely new pathways by scratch. Also, power lines are accessible to both urban and rural areas, which means that Farmer Johnson won’t have to drive forty-five minutes into the city to check his e-mail.

This ZDNet article offers coverage from a discussion about the possibility of broadband being offered over the power line systems:

That’s the takeaway from a roundtable that focused Current Communications, a startup that is selling electric utilities on the need for better grid monitoring and management and software and broadband over powerline technology.

Current sells the technology and gear utilities can use to offer broadband. Internet access over the power grid allows you to plug in anywhere there is an electric outlet. Download and upload speeds are also symmetrical.

Now I may not be as technologically savvy as some of my colleagues, but I do understand the value in making things easier on customers. If I could consolidate my electric and Internet bills, while also reducing the number of devices needed to operate a home network, I’d be a happy man.

Add to Del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit | Furl

It looks like the ACLU is branching out into new territory. The organization is broadening its horizons from the political arena, stepping into the digital realm with its latest commentary on the citywide Wi-Fi network in the words for San Francisco.

In a statement earlier this week, the ACLU openly criticized policies by both Google and Earthlink, citing that the companies are providing inadequate privacy and free speech protection to potential Wi-Fi users.

In his article, Stephen Lawson outlines some of the ACLU

It looks like Google and Earthlink have cleared the first hurdle in the process of building the MuniFi network for the city. Finalizing the partnership agreement, however, will probably turn out to be the simplest part of this whole endeavor.

Back in October, Google met with local politicians to explain how the two companies planned to implement the project, and were met with a less than warm reception. Davis Freeberg was on hand, and commented on some of the outlandish constraints that the city wanted to put on the project:

Now that everyone has agreed in principle to how the partnership between the two companies should look, the next obstacle lies in selling the idea to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, some of which are looking to supplant the effort by suggesting the city build its own municipally owned network, without the help of Google and Earthlink.

“We should stop and look and not just leap just because the mayor wants to be able to sell this sizzle,” says city supervisor Jake McGoldrick as quoted in a Wireless article.

“By giving EarthLink access to light poles and other locations for radios, the city is giving away valuable resources in a deal that locks it in for several years. The city could contract with private companies to carry out technical tasks, but it should own the network and be able to price services itself.”

Speaking of service pricing, Earthlink plans to provide 1M bps wireless services for around $20 a month, while Google will offer a slower, but completely free (and ad-supported) alternative at 300K bps.

That is of course, if the project ever gets off the ground.

Add to Del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit | Furl

Joe is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest ebusiness news.

Rubel discovered the Web 2.0 additions via his referrer logs yesterday and blew the whistle on a very unsuspecting Earthlink. A little help from Michael Arrington and Dave Winer and the cat bag was sufficiently perforated.

Earthlink’s Dave Coustan let out a shrill eek:

MyReader and MyFavorites are still partly under construction as bugs are exterminated. Rubel reveals the “core selling point” of the RSS reader is that it shows only new articles since a user’s last visit, rather than unread feeds.

“The social bookmarking site is similar to del.icio.us and Yahoo MyWeb,” writes Rubel. “You can tag and share favorites and see all of the other bookmarks in the community that share the same tags.”

Mikey likes it:

|

Drag this to your Bookmarks.

Add to DiggThis Yahoo My Web

Even though search advertising makes billions for Google (GOOG), it doesn’t offer EarthLink (ELNK) the best chance for making a profit or pleasing its shareholders.

EarthLink CEO Garry Betty told the Wall Street Journal, “We still don’t believe in the free model much,” due to the cost of building a network and supporting it afterward.

“We’re not in business to break even. We’re in the business of making money for our shareholders,” Betty said.

Breaking even means earning $7 in ad revenue per customer per month in a municipal WiFi system, and Betty doesn’t see search advertising generating that much money. In the past, Microsoft’s chief software architect Bill Gates has said each search user is worth about $50 a year to Google.

Although EarthLink recently lost a bid to supply Portland, OR, with WiFi services, they will likely partner with Google again on bidding for other cities. If that’s true, no one is ready to confirm it yet, as the article noted:

—

Add to | DiggThis | Yahoo! My Web | Furl It | PreFound.com

Bookmark WebProNews –

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

The San Francisco Wireless Treat

How long will it take for Google to expand its wireless network to other cities? Can Google profit from a high-volume, small account approach to local advertising on WiFi? Broadcast your thoughts at WebProWorld.

An announcement was made yesterday, disclosing the selection of the combined proposal. Now the City will begin negotiations with Google and EarthLink to hammer out contract terms for establishing the service. Free basic wireless service and faster connections for a monthly fee should be part of the final contract.

“San Francisco has undertaken a thorough, innovative, and transparent process to reach an audacious goal: free wifi for our residents,” said DTIS Executive Director Chris Vein. “By undertaking two competitive processes, we asked the citizens of San Francisco what they thought we should do and we asked the best and brightest technical minds what they thought we should do. Today’s announcement will take us one step closer to making universal and affordable broadband a reality.”

Google had previously agreed to install antennas and equipment throughout San Francisco, and to deliver an ad-supported free wireless broadband service. They would also pay the City for access rights to utility poles and other locations to place its WiFi equipment. That part of the proposal has been shifted to EarthLink.

It appears EarthLink will do the heavy lifting on the customer service side of the equation. Although Google plans to provide Tier 1 support via email and an online help center, the proposal noted that if “a network outage or issue affecting multiple customers exists,” Google may pass the issue to EarthLink support.

EarthLink also detailed multiple levels of support to be available as part of the proposal, for the subscription-based higher speed advertising-free services customers may purchase.

Recently, our Jason Lee Miller noted that Google engineers filed three wireless technology patent applications. All of them appear to have some connection with the forthcoming service in San Francisco:

The 174-page proposal by the two tech companies provides for 95 percent outdoor and 90 percent indoor coverage by the network. The basic free service will offer speeds of around 300kbps over 802.11b/g WiFi connections.

Google also noted the benefits of its advertising services for local businesses, saying it can “enable effective and affordable advertising solutions for small businesses and small proprietors for whom traditional advertising may be too expensive.”

—

Add to | DiggThis | Yahoo! My Web | PreFound.com

Bookmark us here:

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

The network, which will cost an estimated $15 million to build, will offer free ad-supported service via Google and $20/month faster service from Earthlink. Earthlink’s service will be four to five times faster than Google’s, and, naturally, be ad-free.

From the AP:

The joint proposal from EarthLink and Google prevailed over five other finalists: Communication Bridge Global; NextWLAN; Razortooth Communications LLP; MetroFi and SF Metro Connect, a partnership that includes SeaKay, Cisco Systems Inc. and IBM Corp.

The city’s five-member review panel ranked the EarthLink-Google package as the best deal for San Francisco, followed by MetroFi and the partnership that included Cisco and IBM, said Chris Vein, director of the city’s technology department.

Expect sales of wifi VOIP/Skype phones to go through the roof in San Francisco, as citizens realize they can eliminate landlines and cell phones while within the city limits.

New York City, which has spent the better part of three decades convincing companies that it is prohibitive to do business in NYC, and is consistent in its approach of poorly utilizing cost-saving technologies, has stated that it would prefer to struggle to beat budget deficits than have a thriving, tech-industry supported city.

Okay, that last part isn’t true, but what is wrong with this city?! We have a pretty bad “digital divide” of our own, and tech companies that come to New York have been known to basically get cancer the moment they set up shop. Could we at least try to compete with SF and Seattle?

Add to | Digg | Yahoo! My Web

Technorati:

Nathan Weinberg writes the popular InsideGoogle blog, offering the latest news and insights about Google and search engines.

Visit the InsideGoogle blog.

The likely outcome:

• Free, slow-ish wifi access citywide (ad-supported)
• Faster, no-ad wifi citywide (for a nominal fee, perhaps $20/mo.)
• Timeline: According to the Chron article, they could have this up and going by the end of 2006

More thoughts as actual details become available…

(“goofi” hat tip to doc, via miss rogue)

Add to | Digg | Yahoo! My Web

Technorati:

Christopher Carfi, CEO and co-founder of Cerado, looks at sales, marketing, and the business experience from the customers point of view. He currently is focused on understanding how emerging social technologies such as blogs, wikis, and social networking are enabling the creation of new types of customer-driven communities. He is the author of the Social Customer Manifesto weblog, and has been occasionally told that he drives and snowboards just a little too quickly.