TeleClick today looks at the potential for corporate sponsorships to provide the funding needed for smaller cities to implement citywide wireless networks. For a city that isn't big enough to attract the attention of a provider like Google or EarthLink, the article suggests, corporate sponsorships could be the answer.

"With the recent media frenzy around the idea of citywide Wi-Fi, companies stand to receive a lot of press coverage for sponsoring such a network, especially if it helps underprivileged residents gain affordable access to the Internet," the article states. "Sponsors could also negotiate the integration of their brand name or logo with the project, or even have the entire project named after them. Any company that can get their corporate logo or web address on the computer screens of a few thousand people, each and every time they access the Internet, has found themselves a beneficial branding arrangement to say the least."

Tech consultant Craig Settles says there are "endless possibilities" for a company to creatively take advantage of such an opportunity. "Any number of merchants can use this sponsorship to provide free content that's educational vs. promotional, and have opt in for people who want to receive special promo offers, news on new products, services, etc.," he says.