Todd Wallack visits with Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg:

The head of the country’s largest phone company ridiculed San Francisco’s interest in building a municipal Wi-Fi network that is designed to offer cheap or free Internet service throughout the city.

“That could be one of the dumbest ideas I’ve ever heard,” said Ivan Seidenberg, chief executive officer of Verizon Communications, during a meeting with Chronicle editors and writers on Friday. “It sounds like a good thing, but the trouble is someone will have to design it, someone will have to upgrade it, someone will have to maintain it and someone will have to run it.”

I might agree with Seidenberg IF the incumbent telco’s provided true broadband, which they don’t (we’re stuck at very slow, costly speeds compared with Japan & Korea).