SF's Market Street Wi-Fi Marks Shift In City's Tech Approach

San Francisco’s free public Wi-Fi network on Market Street was announced on Dec 16, after a noticeable absence of promotion before the offering.

This approach in delivering a service to the public without promoting the fact that the city was making good on its promise to deliver is San Francisco's attempt to rebuild trust in its relationship with the public, chief information officer Marc Touitou explained. It’s also a demonstration of Touitou’s style as a new public-sector CIO. The city’s new 50 Mbps Wi-Fi network is a first part of a larger project to offer widespread public Wi-Fi access throughout the city. An official announcement of such a project has not been announced. Thus far, Touitou has delivered on his promise to spend less time making promises and to focus on getting things done. The Market Street Wi-Fi network and a Google-funded project slated to bring Wi-Fi to 31 city parks by the summer of 2014 both come after years of stalled projects and broken promises by the city when it comes to large IT projects.