Google has confirmed that it has launched a free WiFi service, a move that could cut more ground from underneath the telecoms industry, according to analysts.
The search engine said that the move is part of a Google engineers' "20 percent time project." Google encourages its engineers to spend 20 percent of their work time developing independent projects. Several of Google's products have grown out of such projects, including Google News and its AdSense advertising programme. The company has also developed a product called "Google Secure Access," to provide security for people using its WiFi service. Google has not disclosed its broader plans for the technology.
Google has the capacity to build a global WiFi network, since it has huge reserves of cash and has been buying unused fibre-optic network capacity, which was left over from the telecom slump earlier this decade. The cost of the hotspots would be paid for by advertising revenues.
"You can see how it makes sense, others have thought about ad-supported WiFi, but Google has the clout, they already have the ability to do locally specific hotspot ads," Jeremy Green, principal analyst at Ovum told ElectricNews.net. "Offering WiFi for free may make more sense than charging for it."
Currently the service is only available near Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California and in San Francisco's Union Square shopping district.
Free wireless communications would take Google even further from its internet search roots and move it into the fiercely competitive world of internet access providers and telecommunications companies.
"The really scary thing is that Google does VoIP and WiFi coverage, which could provide an alternative to fixed-voice and mobile voice services," Green said.
Google has already opened up a front in the telephony market, having introduced a VoIP service called Google Talk in August.
In the short-term a Google WiFi service would be bad news for commercial WiFi providers, who charge their users by the hour for using their hotspots.
SOURCE:
http://www.electricnews.net/frontpage/news-9646958.html
