Google to supply WiFi for Mountain View, CA

With hometown Internet star Google offering to blanket Mountain View with free wireless Internet access, the city is leaping ahead of neighbors in the race to be Silicon Valley's most tech-savvy town.City leaders unanimously accepted Google's offer Tuesday night to make Mountain View the first city in the Bay Area -- and possibly the country -- to get a full umbrella of free WiFi coverage. Google will install as many as 400 transmitters the size of a shoe box on streetlamps throughout the city.As part of a five-year contract starting by June, Google will test the system, which will link wireless-ready laptops to the Internet in most of the city. In a matter of months, surfing the Web with a wireless laptop should be possible from a sidewalk cafe on Castro Street. But a paddleboat at Shoreline Park might be problematic -- unless it's near a streetlamp.``It's going to make us one of the first, if not the first, to have citywide Internet . It's a pretty cool thing,'' Mayor Matt Neely said. ``We're thrilled for all our neighbor cities who get to follow our lead.''