More on Google’s plans for a city-wide WiFi network in San Francisco: the search engine giant is in talks with mobile device makers for possible partnerships. This is in line with the company’s search for a business model for its planned wide-area WiFi network.

Notable among the companies Google has had discussions with are Motorola, Siemens, Philips, and Sony, Nintendo. The first three manufacture mobile phones, while the last two have mobile gaming platforms that support WiFi access. Sony’s PlayStation Portable is likewise touted to be a good portable platform for playing movies.

At this point, Google is still facing many issues, including technical, logistical, and even political. It has bandwidth concerns, in that there is a need to inter-connect the access points the company plans to put up in every 30 square mile area. The company also has to go through various city councils that will have to evaluate everything from business viability, to competition concerns, to aesthetics.

The largest issue, however, is the business model. Google is a company known for developing services with usability and usefulness coming first before establishing a business model. Sometimes Google offers services for free, in exchange for targeted contextual advertising—something it’s been a pioneer and an expert in. Google’s discussions with mobile device makers is seen as a welcome move, especially for consumers who expect to be able to enjoy WiFi access not only from their laptops, or their home desktop computers (range permitting), but also while roaming around the city, with their PSPs, or WiFi-enabled PDAs and mobile phones. Who knows, maybe Google will be the next big thing in telecommunications, if Voice-over-WiFi becomes popular?