city wifi

I read not too long ago about a few college towns implementing free wireless internet in their community. As expected, there was quite a bit of push back from local broadband and DSL companies. After all, if everyone can get free high speed internet access via a wireless connection, who's going to pay for it? I think that they managed to get it approved though under the assumption that it was mostly being used for educational purposes, because it was for a college town.

This brings up an interesting case, though. In the past, free internet access was only available at places like the library. As wireless has become more prominent and affordable, it started popping up in cybercafes, airports, and hotels. So, what is to stop communities from implementing their own? Granted, there would be some sort of cost involved, but why not start a wireless company and pay for your costs by showing some advertisements at login? I'm sure that there are free wireless providers doing it right now, by showing ads while you are surfing, like the free dial-up companies were doing.

I wonder if it would be possible for a company to earn enough only by serving advertisements at login, and not while surfing...If so, that sounds like a doozy of an idea.