San Francisco

Wherever I go in San Francisco, I find an average of 10 open networks. Two or three of them are free, and not encrypted. If I prefer, I can go in a Cafe’ as a Bedouin and work there. There I can call for free everywhere in the world. If you have grown up with the Italian telephonic fares, with the local calls time-based (TUT), then you see this as heaven.

Two years ago Gavin Newsom, mayor of San Francisco, said: “We will not stop until every San Franciscan has access to free wireless Internet service”. From 2008, there will be a big, free wireless network that will be open and free for everyone.

Rome

In Italy, a little bastard law says that everyone should have the copy of the ID of the people that are surfing the web with his network. This way the Italians close their wi-fi networks.

Sometimes, one of the Italian crazy politicians says something good. Then you can hear Walter Veltroni, mayor of Rome, telling us that, in the center of Rome, there is wi-fi connection free for everyone. Great. Then guess what? It is limited to one hour a day. Guess why? “Because people can illegally download music from the net“.

Palermo

I want to rush it, but then I find another news from Palermo. Diego Cammarata, mayor of Palermo, meets a lot of people with Silvio Berlusconi. Can you guess what he said? That “In five years everyone in Palermo will have water at home 24/7“.

Photo credit: vkdir