TheRegister:

“A Google-funded startup is announcing an alternate plan to bathe the 49-square-mile city in Wi-Fi. It comes at a fraction of the cost, doesn’t require the city to commit to anything, and employs hardware that’s likely to outperform anything Earthlink can provide. It may prove to be a fatal blow to Mayor Gavin Newsom’s already struggling plan to bridge the digital divide.

Meraki, located in nearby Mountain View, California, has already provided internet access to select parts of San Francisco that’s been used by almost 7,000 unique machines. On Wednesday, it announced plans to expand that network to include the rest of the city.

“There’s clearly interest and I think the interest is growing,” said Sanjit Biswas, CEO and co-founder of Meraki.

In contrast to Earthlink’s costly proposal to attach access points to light poles throughout San Francisco’s hilly terrain, Meraki relies on volunteers who place repeaters provided free of charge in their windows so their neighbors can get access. Some of the bandwidth is provided by Meraki through contracts with DSL providers, while other throughput is delivered by residents who volunteer to share a portion of their broadband connections.

Meraki’s mesh approach allows a small number of DSL connections to deliver robust internet access. Indeed, when we tested the network we got speeds in excess of 1Mb down and almost 1Mb up. Meraki’s mesh might also prove more resilient to interference than the one Earthlink plans to build, since repeaters can be placed pretty much anywhere, allowing for closer proximity and better line of sight.”