News

Sun fires up public WiFi in San Francisco - and elsewhere?

by Guy J Kewney | posted on 19 November 2008


How well this solar-powered WiFi network node would perform in London or Stockholm in the winter remains to be seen; but in San Francisco, probably the only question is "how will they cope in summer?"

The picture was posted by CleanTechnica, and the WiFi node was posted by Meraki; it's part of the Free the Net public hotspot network.

It is said (often) that Mark Twain was the originator of "The coldest winter I ever endured, was summer in San Francisco." Nobody can actually find the origin of that quote, but it's something that natives often say, because the clinging cold fogs which blanket the sun on many summer days do have a chilling effect.  There's a cold current down that part of the Pacific coast.

Jerry James Stone writes: 

San Francisco isn’t the only place to benefit from this. According to the company, their customers span 125 countries and range from operators for individual buildings to large carriers connecting entire towns and regions. It seems the new solar units can only further their goal. The units will be ideal for such places as fair grounds, parks and rural areas.

He also says that the unit "isn't cheap" quoting $749 for the cheap version, $1,500 for the large full-scale box.


Technorati tags:   
sunshine and wifi - You can discuss this article on our discussion board.