May 4th, 2006
Google Dearth: Google's Mountain View Wi-Fi may need more transmitters
It seems as though Google’s heralded WiFi network it is building in its hometown of Mountain View, Calif. (shown, appropriately enough, via a grab I took from Google Earth) is encountering some snags.
eWeek’s Ben Charny reports today that in testing the network, Google has found out that it just might need more Wi-Fi transmitters than it was planning on to achieve the service quality and coverage it has intended to offer.
Mountain View’s economic development manager Ellis Burns tells Ben that it’s possible that Google will have to push its stated June launch back to July or beyond.
For its part, Google is still holding to that June launch time frame- at least publicly. But a Google spokesperson doesn’t deny that a pushback might prove necessary.
As Ben points out, though- and as I agree, Google’s takeaway from the Mountain View project is that it may need to team up with an established provider to help them build other municipal Wi-Fi services in other cities.
Like that project with EarthLink in that city further up Highway 101- the one that has such hilly terrain that made Tony Bennett sing, "little cable cars…"
And if you think that "little cable cars…" have to strain to climb those hills, well,what about Wi-Fi and its need for line o’sight?
Russell Shaw is an enterprise computing journalist, analyst and author based in Portland, Oregon. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
