WebProNews

The two companies submitted competing bids during San Francisco's call for wireless broadband proposals, but have now teamed on a single proposal that will offer two tiers of service.

Google's free wireless broadband proposal is still part of the submission made to the city of San Francisco. Its ad-supported service would deliver 300kb connections throughout the city via a mesh network of antennas Google plans to install.

The possibility of faster access on a monthly fee basis has been part of the discussion as well. Light Reading reported that Atlanta-based EarthLink is now part of Google's proposal. For about $20 per month, EarthLink would provide 1Mbps downstream and upstream connections to users.

Other companies figure in the joint proposal too. Tropos Networks would provide the mesh networking equipment to be installed around San Francisco. Backhaul equipment from Motorola will deliver wireless traffic from node to tower.

Google and EarthLink will compete with five other proposals, six if a late-arriving proposal from an unnamed applicant is part of the approval process. Cisco and IBM are partners with SeaKay in one of the competing proposals.

---
document.write("Email WebProNews here.")

Drag this to your Bookmarks.

Add to document.write("Del.icio.us") | DiggThis | Yahoo! My Web

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