Plaza Five Fifty Five in Sacramento is offering free Wi-Fi in public spaces, including the lobby, the area outside the building, the attached five-story parking garage, and public spaces on all 15 floors: There are upsides and downsides to such a deployment. Building administrators will use handheld devices to control heating, air conditioning, and security. A free-to-access network like this one makes more sense when it also supports applications like that.
But the network could end up being a pain for tenants which may have their own WLANs covering their offices. IT workers will want to make sure that their employees attach to their presumably more secure network rather than the free and open public network.
The network uses Cisco APs and a Netgear switch. The news release about the network doesn't seem to be online yet but may appear here soon.