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Google, fiber, and WiFi
Submitted by acohill on Tue, 09/20/2005 - 09:08.
The tech world is abuzz with the announcement by Google that they are:
1) Rolling out a national fiber backbone
2) Offering Google Secure Access WiFi services
Throw a rock and you'll hit someone with an opinion, but on SlashDot, which usually has pretty sharp insight into these things, the consensus is as follows:
1) Google's network initiatives will allow it to know even more about its customers, making advertising on Google even more valuable (and it is the advertising that is paying the bills).
2) The phone companies are in deep trouble. Google just rolled out GoogleTalk, a voice application that could quickly become full-fledged VoIP, and you needs lot of bandwidth to handle lots of phone calls. Hence the national fiber backbone. Google will be able to quickly build a large customer base and throw all the hardware resources needed at it to keep service quality high. Look for college students to start dropping cellphone service first.
3) But how do you replace cellphones with fiber? Well, you need a WiFi and/or WiMax wireless network to do so. Which Google has started testing. Just like Sprint and MCI did in the early days of competitive long distance, Google will cherry pick key markets and grab big gobs of customers--think college campuses and college towns, downtown metro areas, etc.
4) Google will also use its massive network to continually provide new and improved Web applications to piggyback on its email, mapping, and newsgroup services. Eventually, Google will rollout a net-centric desktop OS replacement for free, killing Windows.
Who loses? From a community perspective, rural communities are not likely to see free or low cost Google services anytime soon, because the markets are not big enough.
As I have written before, I am very cautious about Google and any other "free" service providers (e.g. Yahoo!, MSN, etc.). You give your privacy away, and lose ownership of your own data. Yahoo! just handed over emails to the Chinese government that resulted in a ten year jail sentence for someone who was writing about freedom in China (or the lack of it).
We need to be very cautious about any company that offers "free" services and exposes us to privacy and free speech problems.
EBay bought Skype
I thought EBay bought Skype, not Google.
Not that this detail changes the basic premise. Google can make a Skype like product pretty easily.
EBay did buy Skype
I was typing too fast. I've corrected the article to indicate that Google has rolled out GoogleTalk, a voice chat service similar to Skype to Skype calls. Thanks for catching that.
WiMax and Google
We spend time in an area of Franklin county in which high-speed internet is unavailable- middle of nowhere, just like we like it. I occasionally telecommute using dial up, which is a major, major pain, and one of our neighbors does the same using satellite, which is worse. I and a lot of other people who suffer through life in major urban areas would spend a lot more time tellecomuting if we had high-speed service. I've been told the roll out of WiMax is basically our only option and that that will not happen before 2007. Do you think this announcement by Google could speed that process up?
Will Google speed WiFi deployment in rural areas?
Unfortunately, I don't think it will. Google is going to go after high density urban areas where it can grab a lot of customers quickly from the phone and cable companies. As always, I think rural areas need to stop hoping that someone rides into town and solves all their broadband issues (e.g. Feds, state government, etc.). Rural communities need to invest themselves in infrastructure that will make it less expensive for local and regional providers to come in and offer services.
Thanks. A couple follow ups:
Thanks. A couple follow ups: do you agree that WiMax is basically our only hope and that 2007 is about the right time? Along the same lines, what in your mind could Franklin County do, if anything, to get the truly remote areas served? I have yet another neighbor who telecommutes via dial up (to India no less) who spent a lot of time trying to get, on sort of a money no object basis, a T1 line and he eventually just gave up. Thanks.
WiMax is not the only option
WiMax is a solution, not the solution. There are plenty of affordable licensed wireless equipment that deliver broadband to customers in rural areas. I mentioned WiMax in the original item in the context of what Google might be doing, and did not mean to suggest it is the only way to get broadband into rural areas.
The problem that the county could help with is identifying wireless tower locations, buying land for towers, and/or adopting a uniform policy for use of public lands and right of way for towers and antennas.
In a rural area with a small number of customers, wireless access providers don't have the time or the money to run around doing all this, and in particular, they don't have the time to wait months while the county figures out what the policy is and what to charge. Being pro-active in this regard would possibly get some local and regional wireless providers interested much more quickly. And none of this is particularly expensive--adopting a uniform right of way/fee policy costs nothing.