GigaOM

Even if San Francisco’s high-profile, city-wide Wi-Fi network with EarthLink and Google was a fundamental flop, residents of the city that need it the most could still get some free wireless broadband. Meraki Networks, a San Francisco-based startup that makes mesh networking gear is building an ad-hoc San Francisco Wi-Fi network called “Free the Net.” At a press conference on Wednesday, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Meraki CEO Sanjit Biswas plan to announce a project that includes Meraki’s Wi-Fi networks throughout San Francisco’s affordable housing communities.

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A lot has been written about the new 3G iPhone, its price and its impact. Now it’s time to shift attention to the most important question about this device: How much money will it make for Apple and its carrier partners?

While I don’t have any concrete financial projections, after reading some of Wall Street’s better analysis and taking clues from my own sources, I can offer some observations, which I’ve packaged in a Q&A format here: Continue Reading

After months of rumor-driven frenzy, the much talked about 3G iPhone from Apple finally became a reality, promising yet another revolution in the mobile Internet experience. Offering a combination of great user interface with (slow) DSL-level speeds and location-based technologies, the new 3G iPhone is a game-changer.

Those are not my views; they come to use from Ralph de la Vega, president and chief executive officer of AT&T Mobility, the wireless division of San Antonio, Texas-based AT&T. A few hours after the release of the new phone, de la Vega chatted with me about the iPhone, its impact on location-based services, enterprise mobility and of course, the wireless web revolution it will unleash. Here are excerpts from our interview:

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In a few hours from now, there is a good chance that as part of The Steve Jobs Show, Apple will introduce a brand-spanking new, 3G iPhone. It has some folks I know in the wireless world not really looking forward to the big surge of traffic such an 3G-capable iPhone will bring to their networks. Think of it as an iPhone-inspired stress test for their high-speed wireless networks. Continue Reading

What do they say – one man’s meat is another man’s poison. Looks like that was for T-Mobile USA that has filed a lawsuit against Starbucks, which had recently switched over from T-Mobile to AT&T.

AT&T offering free WiFi at Starbucks locations is putting the hurt on T-Mobile’s WiFi business, prompted the lawsuit. (Hey Ma Bell, thanks for listening to our suggestion about free Wifi. ) At the time of the original WiFi announcement all three parties – Starbucks, T-Mobile and AT&T – made polite noises about getting along and impacting each other’s business.

Even though, only two markets (San Antonio, TX & Bakersfield, Calif.) have switched to AT&T, T-Mobile is chagrined that Starbucks & AT&T are offering a free WiFi promotion. ( Rest of the Starbucks’ stores still use the T-Mobile network. As a result the free offer breaches most of the agreements put in place between the three parties.

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Entertainment is vital to Los Angeles, especially video entertainment. So it has to be embarrassing for Time Warner Cable to be told by the city, in a lawsuit, that its cable TV service sucks.

Nobody likes to be told this sort of thing. But looking past the public relations hit, the question is: How damaging could this lawsuit be? At this point, it looks like a pesky nuisance, and not much more, for the cable giant.

Here’s why: Assuming Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo can prove his case, he wants Time Warner Cable, and parent company Time Warner, to make some customer service improvements and pay some money to the city and LA cable subscribers. The LA Times said civil penalties from the suit could be in the “tens of millions of dollars.” For Time Warner Cable, a $29 billion company, that liability is manageable.

Two years ago, Time Warner became the dominant cable TV provider in LA after city leaders approved an acquisition of Adelphia Communications and an asset swap with Comcast. As part of the deal, Time Warner agreed to LA’s unique customer service standards for cable TV companies, including a 30-second time limit for answering consumers’ phone calls and a 24-hour time limit for fixing TV service problems. (Hey FCC! Why don’t you have standards like those?!)

If Time Warner fell short of LA’s subscriber standards, it seems the company has probably violated the local franchise agreement that allows it to dominate the market, too. But the suit against Time Warner doesn’t raise a dispute over the franchise agreement. So Time Warner will likely maintain control over the TV market in LA, even if it loses the customer service suit in court.