Free public Wi-Fi is becoming increasingly common these days, with Starbucks being one of the first to really make free Wi-Fi access a common offering. But these days, free wireless networks have expanded beyond the coffee shops of America as well. Such is the case in New York City, where European company Gowex started deploying wireless hotspots, accessible to anyone using the company’s mobile app, spread out between Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island, Brooklyn and the Bronx.

Meanwhile, in San Francisco, the city itself is leading the wireless charge — albeit out of necessity. According to InfoWorld, the city and county of San Francisco partnered with EarthLink and Google (News - Alert) roughly a decade ago to build a citywide Wi-Fi network, but EarthLink’s decision to withdraw from the municipal Wi-Fi space in 2007 stopped the initiative in its tracks.

But now San Francisco seems to have decided to go it alone and has started with free outdoor Wi-Fi along Market Street, from the central Castro District to San Francisco Bay. The service went live this past Monday.

Being free of commercial interests, the network doesn’t feature ads — save for a splash screen that reads “Welcome! Enjoy This Free Service. Mayor Edwin M. Lee.” — and won’t require users to sign in.

Even without bringing in ad revenue, though, the network offers quite a benefit to San Francisco as it is expected to make public areas more attractive to visitors, with the added benefit of getting low-income people online. Besides, advertising and subscription fees have proven unsuccessful in the past and have even been legally challenged by private service providers.

Meanwhile, the city’s CIO, Marc Touitou, believes that rolling out Wi-Fi in San Francisco without the help of a third party is the best way to go, especially in contrast to the “years of wrangling involved in the Google-Earthlink (News - Alert) network.” The city did, however, get some help from Ruckus Wireless, which donated around 150 of its ZoneFlex 7782-S outdoor access points, as well as network controllers, and even helped the city install them and link them to its 130-mile municipal fiber backbone.

Those in range of the network need only search for the SSID “_San_Francisco_Free_WiFi” to get surfing for free.