Meraki, the San Francisco company that is providing free Wi-Fi to San Franciscans, is teaming up with the city to bring free Internet access to low-income housing projects as part of its plan to unwire every neighborhood in San Francisco.

On Tuesday, Meraki held a press conference with the city’s mayor, Gavin Newsom, to kick off its latest initiative, which will add wireless coverage to 12 low-income housing projects in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco. Meraki also plans to provide Wi-Fi Internet access to low-income housing owned by the city in other neighborhoods as well as provide free Wi-Fi to senior centers throughout the city by the end of the year.

About 150,000 of San Francisco’s 860,000 residents are using the Meraki network, Newsom said. “We’re a few years from having this city covered” with free Wi-Fi access, he added.

To date, Meraki has provided its Wi-Fi gear and free access to the Internet to residents in 80 percent of San Francisco’s major neighborhoods. The company plans to continue building the “Free the Net” network in 2009, deepening coverage in each neighborhood. Currently, the network spans roughly 10 to 13 square miles, a far cry from the city’s proposed plan with EarthLink to blanket 49 square miles. But the Meraki network, which does not use city-owned assets to mount its gear, has grown tremendously. Six months ago only 2.5 to 3 square miles were covered with Meraki Wi-Fi.

Sanjit Biswas, CEO of the company, said that usage on the network is growing, despite the fact that San Francisco has one of the highest penetrations of broadband access in the country. Much of the usage is being driven by Apple’s new iPhone. Biswas said that over the last couple of months since the iPhone 3G was announced, Meraki has seen more than 20 percent of its new users coming from the iPhone. Read more…

By Erwin Oliva
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 18:21:00 01/29/2008
MANILA, Philippines — Paypal has announced new bank withdrawal features to Philippines-based users, an eBay.ph customer announcement said.

Paypal is a service that allows payments and money transfers through the Internet. It is emerging as an alternative way to traditional means of payment such as checks and money order. It is currently used to process payments for online vendors and auction sites like eBay. This e-commerce service in turn charges a fee.

In an announcement sent to its eBay.ph customers, Paypal now allows both Philippines-based users of the service to withdraw their Paypal earnings from a list of banks.

A list of banks where Philippines-based users can withdraw their Paypal money is available online.

This withdrawal service is available through the profile page of Paypal users in the Philippines.

Local users are asked to provide the 9-digit bank code, account name and account number. Then they are required to follow online instructions in transferring their Paypal money to the designated bank.

Withdrawals amounting to P7,000 or more will have no transactional fees. A P50 fee is charged for withdrawals below P7,000.

To take advantage of the online service, Paypal requires that members should be verified. The verification process will take three to four business days. It also takes five to seven days for money transferred from PayPal to become available in a local bank, eBay.ph said.

Agence France-Presse
First Posted 02:16pm (Mla time) 01/21/2008

BANGALORE, India–India’s major software firms say a US economic slowdown may bring more customers seeking cost savings, but analysts warn that the once red-hot sector faces tough times in 2008.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys Technologies and Wipro, whose latest earnings were hit by a sharp gain in the rupee against the dollar and the US credit crunch, expect clients to send more work to low-cost India even as they pare overall technology budgets.

Wipro, which reported fiscal third-quarter earnings on Friday, said most clients had prepared their 2008 budgets this month and that some had cut information-technology spending.

“But that does not automatically mean their outsourcing and off-shoring budgets are going to slow down,” said Girish Paranjpe, the executive who deals with Wipro’s financial services customers, its most lucrative clientele. Read more…

Utilities hold less appeal on tighter regulation By Jeffrey Hodgson
Reuters
First Posted 10:57:00 01/17/2008

HONG KONG — Telecoms, infrastructure and toll road companies are among the best defensive stocks for Asian investors who fear that the downturn since the start of the year is shaping up to be a full-blown bear market.

Strategists and fund managers said utilities, traditionally seen as a low-growth safe haven in troubled markets, hold less appeal than in the past because of less favorable regulation and rising input costs.

“The sectors I would be focusing on would be telcos, pretty much across the space, and some infrastructure stocks, particularly the Chinese ones,” said Tim Rocks, equity strategist with Macquarie Securities.

The Hong Kong-based strategist said investors should favor infrastructure plays, particularly in China, including toll road operators Shenzhen Expressway and Zhejiang Expressway, and be wary of utilities.

“Regulatory regimes are generally tougher, so that companies aren’t being allowed to pass some price increases because countries are worried about inflation,” Rocks said.

“Even though they’re defensive in that their revenue line may not move that much, the problem is their costs are going up, so they may not be as defensive as it would initially seem.” Read more…