Monkey Brains: San Francisco Is Getting Insanely Fast Wireless Internet — But Not For Cheap

You can get insanely fast wireless Internet to your home if you live in the right neighborhood of San Francisco…and you're willing to pony up $2,500.San Francisco ISP Monkey Brains, which runs a wireless broadband network in the city, is running an IndieGogo campaign to fund much faster access. The technology is called gigabit wireless, and MonkeyBrains has already been selling it to some businesses. To get it into homes, the ISP needs a commitment from at least 100 people.A contribution of $2,500 will get you a connection of between 300 and 500 megabits per second, which is three to five times as fast as Comcast's highest speed. You'll still have to pay a monthly fee of $35 per month. A $4,000 payment will get you 500 to 700 megabits per second. It will only work in certain neighborhoods, though.MonkeyBrains says this will help it expand its network and bring high-speed Internet to poorer areas of San Francisco. Folks can also donate $100 to help fund an open access point on one of these high-speed towers, which anybody will be able to log in to. Companies running fiber to homes, like Google in Kansas City and Austin, promise speeds of 1,000 Mbps, but fiber is hasn't come to San Francisco yet.Join the conversation about this story »