Leaders in the rivalry to create an IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Wi-Fi network for the City of San Francisco, California, are Google and EarthLink. A joint bid by the companies is one of six proposals submitted by the city's deadline. The other widely known applicants are MetroFi and SF Metro Connect, a collaboration among SeaKay, Cisco and IBM. Proposals were also received from smaller firms, such as Communication Bridge Global, nextWLAN, and Razortooth Communications. The city had put out a formal request for proposals and required companies to return bids for a free wireless Internet service with an affordable premium level of service with downloading speeds of 1Mbps. Google had offered earlier to provide free access throughout the city, and EarthLink wanted a paid model. Because of the city's requirements for free and paid service, a partnership was logical, said Donald Berryman, executive VP of Earthlink and president of EarthLink's municipal networks unit. Analyst Julie Ask of Jupiter Research said the Google-EarthLink alliance is the one to surpass due to EarthLink's experience and Google's reserves. MetroFi of Mountain View, California, already has free and paid Wi-Fi networks in Cupertino, California, and Sunnyvale, California. MetroFi's CEO Chuck Haas states that MetroFi will provide 1Mbps for free if users accept a 1-inch advertising bar across the top of their screens.