Anticipation, an-tic-i-pay-ay-shun, it's making me way-ay-ay-eight (SF Examiner, SF Chronicle): San Francisco becomes a case study in how not to build a city-wide Wi-Fi network. Despite announcing interest in metro-scale Wi-Fi at the same time as Philadelphia, San Francisco is now about a year into the process of moving from a winning bidder to a fully approved agreement. Phila. took many months, too, but they were the earliest, biggest city, and in the end had an agreement that all parties seemed satisfied with, and with little rancor as the process came to a close. SF, on the other hand, has seen dissent from the start, beginning with the redaction of bids made during early RFI and RFP stages, and proceeding now to the interest by the Board of Supervisors in a city-owned network, and in starting up a citywide fiber-to-the-home plan.

In the latest turn, the Board postponed essentially a no-confidence vote in the plan to March 20 that was scheduled for today. This vote was independent of approving the actual contract, which should now happen simultaneously. SF has 180 days to act from when the city's Public Utilities Commission approves its part of the agreement, which is less controversial and expected in a few days. At 180 days, the city and EarthLink can either walk away from the agreement.