by Playfuls Staff |
16th August 2006
Starting today, the famous Google Campus in Mountain View is extending its frontiers for every passer-by: the Wi-Fi hot spots built by the Web giant are widely and freely available in its hometown.[more]
Google's network includes 380 access points throughout the Californian city, which has about 72,000 residents and covers a 12-square mile area, said Chris Sacca, Google's head of special initiatives.
For now there is a limited 1Mbps upload and download speed, but it can be increased if demands exceed expectations, Sacca said. Google targeted mid-September for the service's official launch, but it wrapped up its final tests ahead of time. About 1,000 people participated in the service's test phase, he said.
The network covers about 90 percent of the city's 12 square miles so it will eventually ensure wireless Internet network to all Mountain View's 72,000 residents.
“The feedback was overwhelming positive,'' added Chris Sacca. “It's glowing, and in fact it's why we're launching the network earlier than we planned. It's hard to keep up with the requests to get on the network.''
Google intent was to eventually provide outdoor coverage to "the entire city of Mountain View...but] an exception to this is the Mountain View Public Library, where we have installed WiFi access points inside to ensure good coverage throughout the building."
In order to set up the network, Google mounted 380 transceivers, made by Sunnyvale-based Tropos Networks, on light poles throughout the city. The devices will allow residents within 500 feet to connect wirelessly to the Internet.
The Mountain View-based company spent in the “ballpark” of $1 million on the project, Sacca said. And the company agreed to pay Mountain View $36 per light pole, or about $13,680, annually, although that number may grow slightly as the company plans to install a few more transceivers as residents request more access.
Not just local laptop computer owners, but users of any other Wi-Fi device or telephone simply need to seek out nearby wireless networks and pick the "Google Wi-Fi" option. Once the device's browser window opens a Google log-on page appears.
Wireless customers with Google e-mail, instant messaging or home page accounts can sign in using with their normal passwords. Those wishing to remain anonymous can create a temporary user name and sign in to a default Google home page featuring local information on Mountain View and the surrounding region.
"We aren't concerned about being able to handle the load," said Chris Sacca at the opening ceremony. "We think we have built a pretty cool, robust network."
Google's community-wide network has had Mountain View buzzing in anticipation, said City Manager Kevin Duggan.
"There's a lot of excitement," he said. "It's something we could have never anticipated a few years ago when we were just excited to be able to pay for dial-up access to the Internet. Now our entire town is a hot spot."
Google invested about $1 million to build the Mountain View network and expects to have to spend far less than that each year to keep it running. The financial commitment represents a pittance for Google, which has nearly $10 billion in cash.
Still, Google believes the free service will be fast enough to prompt some Mountain View residents to stop paying DSL and cable providers for Internet access. People who take that step will probably want to spend $30 to $170 for a Wi-Fi modem to improve the connection to Google's free service, Sacca said.
"We want to inspire these networks to be built," Sacca added of Google's efforts to back the more than 300 Internet service providers and network equipment makers seeking to build high-speed municipal Wi-Fi networks in the United States.
Some analysts speculated that the new network is another vehicle to produce advertising revenue. Some blogs even joke that Google wants to use the network to motivate its roughly 1,000 employees living in Mountain View.
But Ellis Berns, economic development manager for Mountain View and the city's liaison with the company, has his own theory: “It's really providing them an opportunity to better understand how people are accessing this technology and how this technology works.''
“What I'd really like to do is inspire these networks to be built in other communities,'' said Sacca. “One of the big questions has been, `Do they work?' The last few weeks for us have been the most exciting because it works.”
Making use of the service within a home in Mountain View typically requires a device called a Wi-Fi repeater, which costs $30 to $170. The repeater amplifies the wireless signal and relays it to individual computers equipped with a Wi-Fi card or Ethernet connection.
Google said the Internet portal, which is also partnering with Earthlink to build a citywide Wi-Fi network in San Francisco, has no plans to build other municipal Wi-Fi networks beyond these two initiatives.
