Developer Forum

Google In The Air
Matt McKenzie Oct 01 2005

Google has .. submitted a plan to cover 95 percent of San Francisco
with 300kpbs wireless Internet access, at no charge either to users or
to the city ..

.. the hills of the San Miguel range, some nearly 1,000 feet high,
combine with dozens of smaller hills and valleys to wreak havoc on
wireless signals. Google says it will ensure quality of service by
installing up to 30 access points per square mile ..

[...]

.. the prospect of genuine competition simply petrifies the telecom
industry -- in this case, our widely-despised local provider, SBC
Communications. I don't see them allowing this to happen without a
legal and/or legislative fight ..

We've also heard from Vince Vasquez, a "policy fellow" with the Pacific
Research Institute, who says he opposes any municipal involvement in
providing wireless Internet access.

"Our concern is with public money and publicly controlled Internet
access," Vasquez told the San Francisco Chronicle. "We take a lot of
caution about how government should intervene in the market."

Surprise: The Pacific Research Institute receives funding from SBC.
This may explain why Vasquez can utter free-market platitudes without
addressing an equally vital concern for any conservative think tank:
Telling the federal government to *** out of local jurisdictions'
affairs ...

http://www.yqcomputer.com/

begin oe_protect.scr
Daeron < XXXX@XXXXX.COM > espoused:

Google have certainly gained some cash if they can afford to throw
it away like this. What are they locking people into? There must
be some plan to make more cash here, but I can't see what it is...



--
end
| Mark Kent -- mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk |
People usually get what's coming to them ... unless it's been mailed.

It will be like those free ISPs (K-Mart) back in the modem days...where they
will use your location and send you adverti *** ts (the local pizza parlor)
based on that.

--
The Texeme Construct, http://www.yqcomputer.com/
360, http://www.yqcomputer.com/

begin risky.vbs
< XXXX@XXXXX.COM >,
Mark Kent < XXXX@XXXXX.COM > writes:

Google do have the cash. One obvious area they can get revenue from
this is advertising. At a minimum anyone accessing their wifi network
will do so initially via their browser to 'login'. At least that is
the way my company's public wlan works and requiring people to subscribe
to their wifi network is not unreasonable.

--
Rich Bell in thread: Things I couldn't do if I switched to Linux
Message-ID: <tB7Oe.182$ XXXX@XXXXX.COM >
I am connected to the Net using a Linksys WRT54G router. I don't
get hacked.

Google has billions of dollars just sitting there waiting for the
next stage of their plan. Someone speculated that they are going to buy
T-Mobile or similar company and make cheap cellphones that automatically
connect to the national GoogleNet when within range (VoIP). The phones
would deliver advertising, etc. As far as I know all the traffic on the
Google Wifi gets encrypted and then goes through Google's servers. Google
can then even target their advertising even more effectively. It's very
sinister.

If they allow for Smart phones with Linux/Java, it would do more for Linux
market share than all the efforts combined of the last 10 years.

--
The Texeme Construct, http://www.yqcomputer.com/
360, http://www.yqcomputer.com/

In article < XXXX@XXXXX.COM >,


They will be able to sell ads targeted by geographical location. They
already do that (e.g., you can buy sponsored ads and specify a business
address and a radius now, and they will try to only show the ad to
people within that region), but it is not very accurate.

For the people that come through Google's wireless, it will be accurate,
to within a few hundred feet. That will make sponsored ads a lot more
attractive to local businesses, as they will be able to target specific
neighborhoods.

--
--Tim Smith