September 3rd, 2005
How about Google WiMAX?
I’ve been reading some interesting "where is Google headed" speculation from a the redoubtable but undoubtable Om Malik.
Not on his blog but in Business 2.0 magazine, Om puts forth the entirely credible proposition that with Google quietly shopping for unused miles in the national fiber infrastructure, it could be planning to build its own national broadband network. That network would save Google lots of money on the transmission fees Google pays to pump its data back and forth between its servers, and ultimately to the ISP that is delivering the content.
Om thinks by deploying this fiber network to metro areas, and then launching Wi-Fi hotspot services in select cities, it could bypass the existing content delivery chain altogether. Om mentions a Google-sponsored Wi-Fi hotspot at San Francisco’s Union Square as evidence of this intent.
I think Google-sponsored WiMAX - which could cover a homes and businesses in a whole metro area -would be even a better idea. Once WiMAX arrives in the next couple of years, Google could acquire carriage rights from local service providers - many, but not all of whom are the Wi-Fi hotspot service providers are today. Then, Google becomes a partner-reseller.
Russell Shaw is an enterprise computing journalist, analyst and author based in Portland, Oregon. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
