Council unanimously approves Google WiFi Council unanimously approves Google WiFi (November 18, 2005)

By Jon Wiener

Mountain View will become the first city in the country to offer free wireless Internet access to its residents, after the city council accepted an offer from Google to build an experimental network on the city's streetlight poles.

In a rare public appearance for a company that guards its business plans closely, Google employees answered the council's questions about the project and responded to concerns from local residents about impacts ranging from health effects to loss of privacy.

Chris Sacca, the company's point man on the project, told the council the network could be ready to debut within months.

Council members peppered Sacca with questions for 20 minutes before voting unanimously to approve the contract. Under terms of the deal, Google will pay the city $12,600 a year, adjusted for inflation, for the right to put radio frequency devices on about 350 light poles throughout the city. The company will pay for maintenance and utility costs and create a fund to pay for removal of the devices should they need it.

"Google's been very generous to come forward to offer this service to our citizens," said council member Matt Pear.

Sacca said the company's goal is to provide a service to Mountain View residents in addition to promoting outdoor wireless networks. At the same time, the company will study ways of adapting its core search function and related services, including location-based search and advertising results, for use on wireless devices and networks.

The company has also submitted a bid for a similar project in San Francisco, but has no other plans, according to Sacca. Mountain View is home to approximately 1,000 Google employees, or one in every 70 residents, and the network is partly intended as a perk for them. But the technology and hardware required to build it involved fifteen different vendors, a task Google is not necessarily looking to duplicate anywhere else.

Users will need a free Google account to access the network, though they can sign out of that account after passing through a Google start page. But Sacca said the goal of the project from a business perspective has little to do with generating new page views.

"The number of people who will be coming onto the network is insignificant compared to the cost of the project," said Sacca.

A year ago, the council authorized a similar agreement with MetroFi that was supposed to create "hot spots" as well as a network that households could use for $15 a month. Despite an extension from the city, the company has had difficulty deploying its devices.

City economic development manager Ellis Berns said he has not heard from other wireless providers since news of Google's proposal became public last week.

The agreement also allows the city manager to authorize an additional 85 or so devices in case the company wants to strengthen the network in a particularly popular part of town.

E-mail Jon Wiener at jwiener@mv-voice.com

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