Google's headquarters are situated in Mountain View and Google indicated around a year ago that they would indeed start building their own network. Some may think it has simply been designed as a perk for the 1,000 or so Google employees living in Mountain View. This possible motive for the Wi-Fi project may be slightly far fetched but there is indeed an air of uncertainty surrounding the reasoning for this free service.
Costs to install the network would be large and have been estimated to be at least several million dollars. This money has come directly from Google's pocket and Google have pledged to operate it for five years.
The network is presently being fine tuned ahead of its official public launch which Google have said will take place by the end of the summer. From their pledge we can assume that we will see the network launched before the 23rd Sept.
Google Wi-Fi, as the network is known, uses the same wireless networking standard as built into most notebook computers. Instead of the wireless Wi-Fi routers common in homes, Google has installed 380 boxes called 'nodes' with distinctive twin antennas, on lamp posts scattered around Mountain View. Each node has a range of several hundred feet.
Google has said that the maximum speed of the network is 1Mbps. In comparison, a fast DSL home connection may be 2.5Mbps. Although the speed is not astonishing, it is pretty good and with best connection speeds attained outside homes and close to nodes we could see much more evidence of 'on-the-go' internet use.
Although the Google Wi-Fi network is unique as it is run by the largest search company in the world in its own hometown, it is not the first Wi-Fi network to be built. In around 60 other regions in the US, cities and companies have built similar networks, both fee and free-based. Presently another 130 city and countywide projects are underway. Across the world there is also growing interest in countries from France to China to Macedonia and the UK.
Could this be a service that will become standard as we look into the future of the global use of the internet?
