A couple of months ago, it was rumored that search leader Google was planning a nationwide WiFi network, which it will supposedly run for free. This came about after Google announced the establishment of free public WiFi hotspots in certain localities in the San Francisco Bay Area. Then the company went on a buying spree for a widely-deployed, but unused, underground broadband cable infrastructure from defunct Internet Service Providers. Since the cables were implemented over wide areas across the country, and with Google’s release of its Secure Access virtual private networking client, the theory was that Google planned to go nationwide with its plans.

During that time, it was also hot news in the tech circles that several city governments, notably San Francisco, Chicago, Denver, Miami Beach. Portland, and Philadelphia, were mulling free city-wide WiFi networks themselves. The officials reason that commercial WiFi providers either provided too sparse a coverage, or did not offer affordable services.

To date, none of these networks have been actually implemented. Google stuck with the few San Francisco areas. And the city-wide networks are still in planning stages. But wouldn’t it be really cool to have WiFi access from anywhere? Imagine you won’t have to look for a WiFi-enabled café or pub. With a city-wide WiFi network, you have the freedom to stay connected anywhere.

Of course, the best part is that it’s supposed to be free!