Why Isn't There Free WiFi in SF yet?

I remember reading the news stories a few years ago about how Google and Earthlink were going to bring free WiFi to San Francisco. The plan was to give free WiFi access to the entire city in order to bridge the "Digital Divide." The cost to the city? Zip. Zero. Nada.

Did Google and Earthlink do this out of the goodness of their hearts? No, they're businesses. They recover the cost of setting up a free wireless network for the city by selling advertising. They have a similar service in the town where I live. Anyone with a WiFi card can surf the Internet for free, and in return they put a frame at the top of every window with a banner ad. I find it annoying, so I don't use it, but if I didn't have easy access to the Internet I'd use it in a heartbeat. I always assumed that if Google was involved then they'd put a less intrusive banner, since that's sort of their hallmark, targeted advertising that doesn't distract from the content.

So what's the problem? The City of San Francisco wants more than WiFi for free. For the last few years they've been making one request after another in an attempt to get a better deal than WiFi for free. This article has a pretty good overview of the situation.