In a highly noteworthy move which is part of an electric meter upgrade program provided by Santa Clara's utility provider, Silicon Valley Power, the entire city has been blanketed with free public Wi-Fi.

Spanning across a distance of 19 square miles, the free public Wi-Fi network in Santa Clara, California, covers the 118,000 people residing in the city. According to a Mercury News report, the new service involving the free public WiFi network - dubbed `SVPMeterConnectWifi' - was debuted in Santa Clara this week, after around 600 transmitters were installed all across the city.

With the last few years having witnessed an increase in free Wi-Fi service in the US, the move by Santa Clara to cover the whole city with the free Wi-Fi network makes it the first city in the country to make use of smart meters for bringing free outdoor Wi-Fi to all its residents.

About the free public Wi-Fi network in Santa Clara, Mercury News report said that the `Wi-Fi addition' move has cost the city very little. However, the report also revealed that the service is unencrypted; thereby implying that it is not as secure as a private paid-for home service.

Nonetheless, noting that Silicon Valley Power is "the first utility in the nation to offer free Wi-Fi as part of the smart meter rollout," the utility's manager Larry Owens told the Mercury News: "It's been up less than a week and we're seeing 3,000 users a day."