Google Inc. has won approval from city officials to begin building a Wi-Fi network in its home base of Mountain View, Calif., the company said today.

At a meeting last night, the Mountain View City Council unanimously approved a plan that gives Google access to city-owned streetlight poles for the placement of wireless access points for a citywide Wi-Fi network.

In an e-mail statement, a Google spokeswoman said the company is “excited to begin work on this project” and is looking forward to providing Wi-Fi service to members of the community.

The decision to approve the plan seemed to be an easy one for the city council, as Mountain View will incur no expenses for the Wi-Fi network and actually stands to gain financially from the deal, according to a document on the city council Web site outlining the item on Tuesday’s meeting agenda.

Google hopes to use the Mountain View network as a proving ground to show officials in large metropolitan areas that the search giant can provide citywide Wi-Fi access. About 72,200 people live in Mountain View, located about 40 miles from San Francisco. The company already provides Wi-Fi access in two local Mountain View businesses and in Union Square, a popular outdoor public space in downtown San Francisco.

They’re sneakin’ up on something!