The city of San Francisco has accepted a proposal from Google-Earthlink to provide subscription and free wi-fi throughout the city. I understand that other cities are considering similar proposals. I read the other day that the projection is that in 5 years or less all major metropolitan areas in the US will have city-wide wi-fi.
It’s kind of a moot point for us in California since all of our new laptops have Centrino wireless built in, but it’s crippled (turned off) out of security concerns. Still, there has to be a solution somewhere.
And it’ll be interesting to see the effects of large populations in a locality developing new communications patterns as a result of mobile technology. For me, it’s always the sociological outcomes of technology that are most fascinating and significant.