Will Google's Free Wi-Fi Be Paid for by Ads?

Oct. 3, 2005 -- -- Internet powerhouse Google is known for many online services, including Web searches, free e-mail, driving directions and maps using satellite imagery.

Now the Mountain View, Calif.-based company may be taking steps to ensure that people can get to those features by adding an actual online access service to its offerings.

Google filed an application Friday to help the city of San Francisco build its municipal area network, or MANs, that would allow anyone in the city free access to the Internet using wireless Wi-Fi technology.

As with many MAN projects in the U.S., about a dozen companies -- from telecom companies to traditional Internet service providers -- have submitted proposals for the City by the Bay's planned network. But Google's plan, some industry watchers speculate, could bring about a new business model: a free MAN centered around online advertising that knows where users are within the city's limits.

Esme Vos, founder of MuniWireless.com, a Web site devoted to monitoring MAN projects, notes that Google already has many technological pieces that would make such wireless "location-based" advertising possible.

"On Google, you can type in 'pizza' and your address and you can see tens of restaurants tied to that area," says Vos. "Now, add to this Google Maps with its satellite imaging and they could target that user very locally."

Since Wi-Fi networks use radio waves, Google would be able to determine where users are within the city by noting which MAN transmitter they were using. So, when users log onto the MAN from the Moscone Convention Center, for example, only online ads for stores and restaurants in that area will pop up on the user's computer or Wi-Fi device.

Such a localized online ad approach, traditionally a rich revenue stream for local newspapers and television stations, could produce the funds needed to build and maintain San Francisco's MAN -- an estimated $10 million to $20 million project.

Other analysts say the idea isn't far-fetched, given that public interest in free Wi-Fi services is still high --