According to this piece in the Washington Post, Google are planning a Wi-Fi service. The article itself comes to the Post from Reuters, and I think the title extrapolates a bit based on Googles offering of a Wi-Fi VPN client. I havent seen the software myself yet, so Im not entirely sure about all the details. However, offering a secure client access VPN software is a far cry away from rolling out your own Wi-Fi access service.
What I think Google might be doing is actually in-line with their business plan. The Wi-Fi user logs in (and pays, if need be) to the Wi-Fi service at the local coffee shop, airport lounge or wherever. The user then fires up the VPN software and is good to go for secure browsing over inherently insecure Wi-Fi. No doubt the security client is going to deliver localized advertising in exchange for the security service. The user gets secure connectivity and Google gets to serve up localized ads. Provided you trust Google as the secure VPN provider for your now-encrypted traffic, thats not a bad deal.
Theres also been a lot of talk, and Ive posted about it before, that Google are building a dark fiber network as the basis for their own Internet backbone. Engadget has a bit more on the topic, and some people extrapolated from that backbone build the fact that Google would build their Wi-Fi service. The two projects are actually tangential, but perhaps not entirely unrelated. One way for Google to cut expenses once their Secure VPN client goes on-line is to carry as much traffic on their own network as possible in order to avoid charges from existing Internet backbone providers. They can even make arrangements with T-Mobile and the other large Wi-Fi providers to link up directly to the Internet backbone theyre using. This saves Google a lot of cash and enables them to deliver better performance to the end users.
But Google offering up free Wi-Fi on some nationwide or global basis is a long ways away. Everybody getting hyped about Google offering free Wi-Fi access needs to keep in mind that in order to do that Google would need to install thousands upon thousands of Wi-Fi access points at venues throughout the country. They would have to deal with each individual venue owner to negotiate even plugging the thing in on their premises. They would then need to deal with DSL or cable broadband or even T-1 circuits to EACH of those locations in order to link it back to a backbone, and only then would it touch this network Google are evidently building. Having their own Internet backbone does NOT help them avoid this pain not one bit. I find it extremely hard to believe Google are going to take the time and expense to do this. More than likely well continue to get our Wi-Fi from the same companies providing Wi-Fi today.
Engadget’s screen shots seem to indicate that one actually needs to be at a Google-provided hotspot to make thr Google Secure VPN work. If that is truly the case then the utility of this offering is going to be very limited. There’s just no way Google are going to go through the pain of rolling out thousands and thousands of hotspots. Why would they with the large and growing installed base of hotspots already out there? Using JiWire’s hotspot directory I can’t find any hotspots listed as being provided by Google in the San Francisco area, which is supposedly the rollout city for the Secure VPN offering. So I’m wondering if the inability to use the software is related to the fact that the guys at Engadget are not at a “Google” hotspot or that they’re not at a public hotspot which the software is able to recognize. This recognition would be required if Google is going to be able to serve up localized ads.
Even if all Google are offering is a free VPN client this is still extremely revolutionary for the telecommunications industry. A while back I wrote about how the Bell companies needed to see the opportunity that municipal Wi-Fi represented for them to offer security services for a fee or as an add-on to their current broadband subscribers. If Google are doing what I think theyre doing, thats a big check mate to the Bell companies, because your opportunity to differentiate yourselves from a free service has just come and gone. As the Soup Nazi would say, NEXT!
