Google Offers Free Wi-Fi to Its Hometown

Search engine giant Google Inc. on Thursday sent a letter to the mayor of its home city of Mountain View, Calif., proposing to bring free Wi-Fi service to the city.

“Google is in a unique position to offer free access to the Internet, since we have the ability to subsidize and earn revenue indirectly when these Wi-Fi users get on the Internet and access our and our partner sites,” Minnie Ingersoll, a product manager at Google, said in the letter.

“We would like to work with a city that is close to our headquarters and supportive of this intent.”

/zimages/6/28571.gifClick here to read why political columnist Chris Nolan thinks Google Wi-Fi would have a big impact.

Google plans to propose the free service in a Mountain View City Council meeting on Nov. 15.

Proposed plans call for a mesh network, with 20 to 30 access points per square mile, installed on light poles or traffic lights.

/zimages/6/94222.jpgGoogle made a similar city-wide proposal to San Francisco in September. Currently the company is running trial services in a few locations in the Bay Area as well as in Rockefeller Center in New York.

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