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Google Offers Free WiFi for Mountain View, CA
Patik writes "AFP reports that Google is offering free wifi internet access to all 70,000 residents of its headquarter's hometown, Mountain View, CA. Google expects the entire city to be covered by next June. Basic access will be free while Google retains the right to charge for premium services. This comes after Google made a bid to provide free access for all of San Francisco (pop. 744,000) two months ago, although that city is still considering the bid."
In light of a recent story about Google offering free Wi-Fi internet access to Mountain View, Ca, Microsoft has stated that it will start offering free Wi-Fi to its hometown of Redmond, Washington. This recent development....
I thought you guys were the champion of the mom & pop ISP...
Just wait till the Bay Area wireless comes online and that poll choice will make the others pale into insignificance.
Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise. - William Shakespeare
...not long after Google World Domination (TM) (Beta) is released, we'll be reading Slashdot stories like this:
"AFP reports that Google is offering free sewerage disposal to all 70,000 residents of its headquarter's hometown, Mountain View, CA. Google expects the entire city to be covered by next June. Basic disposal will be free while Google retains the right to charge for premium services."This could certainly explain Google's interest in dark fiber.
yeah, i'll probably be mod'd troll or whatever,
but why is google doing this?
(what are their secret motives?)
i rtfa, and all i found was: "Under the terms of the deal, the basic wireless internet access would be free, but Google could charge users fees for premium services."
so why would google spend so much money to provide this with possibly/probably little return?
Why couldn't they have done this like.. 3 years ago when I was still living there?!
Grr. Now I'm stuck in the cultureless wasteland known as Phoenix Arizona. Least mountain view has a history to it. SGI, Netscape, Cobalt, Handspring... Phoenix has crackheads and cactuses. God's ashtray. Least the rent's cheap.
I'm so friggin jealous, minus the rent prices out there.
Don't forget, your European HQ is in Dublin, Ireland. Can we have free Wifi too please?
You could say it's about advertisements. After all, the more people on the Internet, the more people searching Google, so the more money they make, right?
But there's another side, and depending on how they do it, it could either be interesting or scary. I'm betting on the Interesting, but -
With this service, Google will be able to track where everyone in this service goes, and then sell that data to others. Odds are, this would be like Tivo does it: track trends and report anonymous information. So if someone wants to figure out that people who watch "Monster Garage" also watch a lot of "Veronica Mars", they can throw up some he-man car adds on the later show to try and capture those eyeballs.
In the same way, Google could sell anonymous research data to other firms. Something like "people who tend to visit Slashdot also tend to visit digg.com, news.google.com, etc". They don't have to give out individual "this person searched for this", but just trends - even searchable trends, like saying "these web sites reported on this item, and here's what the breakdown of those people who went to that site or searched for that item visited".
Far more effective than the questionaires of "what computer gaming sites do you visit?". With Google providing the access, they can just tell the marketers directly.
Anyway, this is just my opinion. I could be wrong.
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
When I first saw this, I thought "gee, Google's providing free net access - good for them". If this had been Microsoft, I would have been more likely to think "damn Microsoft - instant monopoly. Bastards". I actually didn't think about that until an earlier poster mentioned MS above.
;)
Whatever you feel about MS/Google, its interesting to see how having a "don't be evil" rather than a "make lotsa money quick" mantra from the outset colours people's view of any plans you put forward in later years.
Or maybe I'm just easily brainwashed, who knows
How can google profit from this venture? The article doesn't say what kind of "premium services" they are going to charge for, but I wouldn't see what services the average google-wifi user will pay for that the non-google wifi user won't.
Let the disagreements begin. 3...2...1... go!
public class null extends java applet { System.out.print ("Tabula Rasa"); }
"but Google could charge users fees for premium services." and what would these consist of ... I mean you either have free web access or not, hard to see what their going to charge for unless they cut off basic services that people need (ie: browsing off google related sites) . their going to have to start finding ways to profit from other things to justify their share price, they cant stay fully reliant on adsense so it should be interesting to see how they profit from this.
I just moved to Boston FROM Mountain View! Drat!
...that Google wouldn't offer?
w00t
Its just google's way to take over the world ....bwahaaaaaaaahaaaahaaaa
Free wireless access for all with G-Wi! The only downside is that searchable text of all of your wireless transmissions will be stored in a database. But its free! Woohoo! :)
With this service, Google will be able to track where everyone in this service goes, and then sell that data to others... Far more effective than the questionaires of "what computer gaming sites do you visit?". With Google providing the access, they can just tell the marketers directly.
Cmdr Taco needs a new category of karma nirvana; something along the lines of "+6 BINGO! YOU WIN!"
Yes, I, Anonymous Coward am announcing today, November 12th 2005 FREE 802.11a,b,g access to a certain (Anonymous) area of the world. Coverage will cover the greater (Anonymous) metropolitan region and I will be considering extending coverage to the suburban areas in Q3 2006.
This service is in direct anticipated response to Google offering "not evil" Wifi in random areas around the world and Microsoft offering "evil" Wifi in different areas.
Thanks for you support & "Faversham"
The Anonymous Coward Network Team. (TDz.)
Where can I get an invite?
Other providers in the area don't even have dial up at a flat rate price. It's all dial up you pay for by the hour. Through a combination of Wi-Fi and IP over Powerlines, I'd love to see Google offer basic connectivity to the nation. Talk about not being evil! Then let google, the cable companies, and phone companies offer fiber to the home for those willing to pay for even more speed. It might be nice to see some actual broadband connections in the United States. Other countries are way ahead of us here!
San Francisco has had free Wi-Fi for quite some time. I had the pleasure of meeting Ralf Muehlen, one of the primary contributors, when I donated equipment to the project last year.
What's interesting is that there's no reason why a lot of Internet access shouldn't be free. We don't pay a service charge for broadcast radio and television. There's an argument that Wi-Fi should be more like HAM radio -- you buy your equipment and your're online. Developments in mesh networking, especially where it's possible to relay through multiple nodes could help make this a reality. Of course we'd still need the wired backbone.
Of course there are a lot of special interests working against this. Not least, the FCC (backed by the current fee based providers) who are adamant about keeping power limititation extremely low for the ISM unlicensed spectrum. Of course the cell phone compainies have no problem blasting at thousands of times more power than we can. But that's life in politics I guess.
Be interesting to see how this plays out in the next few years, especially with the advent on 802.16.
Please get in touch with someone from sflan if you can contribute bandwidth, equipment, or technical expertise. It's a really good cause.
Now I'm gonna have to google "world's biggest pringles can".
This will be a good thing for community relations. Some companies sponsor the local sports clubs or arts groups. This is another way.
It's also on slashdot, NBC, Yahoo and all sorts, giving lots of PR.
It might also yield some results as a social experiment.
All this for what cost? Bandwidth for 70,000 people and setting up a few hundred hotspots. Maybe a million bucks a year? Sounds like a good deal to me.
"Hi John Anderson, it looks like you could do with a Guinness!"
"Ireland only just got carrier pigeons, as if you have any use for WiFi."
You're American right?
I work at a small ISP and if Google offered service in my area the tech department would easily be cut in half to make up for the lost revenue. Scary.
Are people really going to be out in the streets using free wi-fi?
For a while, I'm sure. Eventually, as blood runs deeper in the streets of San Francisco due to their new city-wide weapons ban, I'd imagine that most of the time they'll be hiding out in their houses next to their wired connections.
I wish I had free wifi or a wifi router. I've got to buy one or the Nintendo USB adapter. Although, maybe my neighbors have wifi.
The GOOGLEnet is coming! Beware! Soon the whole world will be envelpoed by the evil wifi blanket...doom apporaches!
Note that in Palo Alto, you can get free wireless access courtesy of a community wireless mesh network, pafree.net (you can guess what their URL is).
I could see MS being frightened of this if free WiFi access becomes widespread, and for good reason. If WiFi becomes nearly universally available, then web-based apps for things other than email access will be truly practical as replacements for and competitors to locally-installed apps. (Think of an ultra-cheap subscription-based or free Google-hosted OpenOfficeOnline over universally free broadband vs. locally-installed MS Office.)
Google already has some good experience in this. Just take a look at Google Earth, which has a small local component that combines with a silky-smooth connection to Google's data. The thing is a just beautiful replacement for locally-installed mapping software (such as MS Streets and Trips). In general, online mapping software is pretty good. The only thing that really keeps people buying locally-installed map software is that they may need it when there's no web connection available. Make WiFi universally available, and that factor is a thing of the past. -- Paul
OpenSource.MathCancer.org: open source comp bio
San Francisco is messed up. We pass an proposition to not have guns in the city...like that is going to help anything. We allow gay marriage. Great move Gavin. What's next? Free WiFi? Naw......
like a free iPod? go here and sign up. http://ipods.freepay.com/?r=24891521 it works!
There is a good likelihood of finding an open network because of housing density in SF, but the network you linked to pretty clearly does not serve very much of the City. Look at the map: half of the nodes are listed as unreachable, and it looks like 90% of the "system" is a few neighbors in twin peaks and the marina.
SF needs a comprehensive network you can get most everywhere, run by somebody with accountability. Neighbors move and change their mind.
Also, there are some legal issues with providing your own free internet access that makes it a risky thing for individuals to try to do as a grass roots plan.
I was thinking about Google and their mostly free services, and it occurred to me that Google is the 21st century equivalent to the Hearsts and other newspaper empires of a century ago. They provided free or mostly free access to information using advertiser's money. In doing so, they informed the world and lubricated the economy while making money themselves.
It's good to see Google trying to get rich providing free services, not trying to ding individuals into PPV $2 ring tones and other bullshit like expiring songs like Sony, Microsoft and the cell phone companies.
Hey, I don't know about the rest of you but Google's just about got all my info pegged down. Gmail stores my records, I'm always logged in so my search history is right there. With google home page they have the weather of the town I live in, my favorite news feeds and they know I like the vocabulary word of the day front and center. My bookmarks section is minimalist, but most telling are links to other free email accounts. They know who my contacts are, they know who I invite to gmail.
Has it ever occured to anyone that gmail is the most comprehensive (I think "pay for" MSN gives you three total addresses) email account that by nature gathers statistical relationship information on the users at SIGNUP. Gmail's signup record is a complete model of that whole six degrees of seperation theory. As it is, when I google Pr0n I Log the f*ck out; I have to; my search history is used for my search results. I use my Google home page at school (college) I do not want to get kicked out of a lab for Googling fsck. Most importantly I do not want pr0n based ads showing up everywhere. I have kids remember.
With free internet service provided by Google I would be totally on record no ifs, ands, or buts about it; they would be able to say "hey this guy doesn't like Pr0n showing up on his search history, lives in (insert town, state, and address here), must have had a divorce last year, oh there it is his lawyer's email is xxxx@gmail.com, is a student, has kids, frequently uses google for spelling help (determined by a misspelled word searched and no results clicked, common search pattern -posts online a bit maybe), and many other things I can't even fathom,etc...".
I love google they do a great job but it's a corporation, corporations are notorious for screwing people when they can, a corporation is a business entity that is held accountable for people's actions, that business entity is by nature psychopathic. I find this service wraps up google's statistical sources and Google seems intent on KEEPING their information FOREVER, so long as they can legally get away with it. I know the terms of gmail when I signed up, and I know how to avoid what I don't want. I like it that way.
Under the influence of Post-Cyberpunk Gonzo Journalism
You get warmth all year round, that has to count for something.
It does:
- Constantly sweating your asses off
- seasons? what are seasons?
- Thousands of geriatrics driving their golf carts to the store, all the while complaining that 85 degrees is just too damn cold
- $250 a month electric bills from aunning aforementioned air conditioning
- Lets buy all the water from Colorado!
- No, really, I WANT the dashboard of my car to bake and crack wide open.
- get all hot and sweaty while outside, then freeze your balls off when you hit nthe wall of air conditioning - POOF Instant Illness!
- Its an amazingly beautiful area, if you like brown. Lots and lots of brown. Hey, les make all the houses brown, too!
- Goofballs lining their Driveways with paper bags with candles in them at christmas time
- Hey, lets force midwest-style lawns of grass to grow where it has no goddamn business being.
s'wut i sed.
I haven't been keeping up with new technologies, so here are some naive questions:
1. Is it possible for more than one WiFi router to cover a given hotspot?
2. If so, how would the client choose which router to use?
3. How many routers could occupy a hotspot before service is seriously harmed?
I'm wondering about the implications of Google offering free WiFi service along with a paid premium service. Would a different provider be able to provide competing services for the same area?
"In prison you just have to shut your eyes and take it. Here you have to shut your eyes and give it."
Welcome to G-Spot(tm)
Having a little bit of Deja Vu here, as I seem to remember hearing about something like this quite some time ago.
With a little digging, I found this: https://wifi.google.com/download.html
TRHOnline - Staggering Towards Brilliance
I live in Mountain View, so I'm very interested to see what the offering will hold. I'll also be interested to see how wireless network access holds up on a large scale deployment with lots of users. Sharing a wireless network in a household with one to six people is easy. But, when I'm trying to access Google's wireless network along with all of my neighbors, will it withstand the load?
Google has huge bandwidth to their corporate site.. What kind of bandwidth will the wifi network have on the backend? It could be very interesting if the 802.11G wifi has a big pipe servicing it, then it becomes more attractive than my existing 3+Mbps cable service.
Too much power centralized is a disaster waiting to happen.
I've been worried about Google since the beginning, and this only makes the hairs standing on my current goosembumps quiver in the wind.
But rah, rah Google, and all that.
*sigh*
The Medium is the Message. --A multi-layered cross-linked world of enormous knowledge and opportunity all bottle necked through a single authority which has the ability to dictate what our awareness has access to.
If trustworthy individuals were the ones drawn to positions of power and easily corruptible monsters were not, then I'd be waving Google flags like everybody else. But that's not how it works, is it?
The grand solution is Personal Sovereignty. Do your own work, take charge of your own power and don't give your decisions over to somebody else.
-FL
I live in a building where I can see about five wireless APs most of the time. Two of them (including mine) are open-access, and the others doing encryption*. My work laptop is an IBM Thinkpad, which has some friendly IBMware for wireless as well as the built-in Windows XP Pro 1.1 software, so it's never clear to me exactly _which_ client configuration stuff is really in control
*Unfortunately, the standards seem to be designed so you only get encryption if you're doing authentication, either with pre-shared secrets or with X.509 certs or something, and you're either authenticating all connections or none of them. I'd really prefer to have my connections encrypted but leave the AP open for guests as well. (In practice, most of the day I'm connected to work using IPSEC, so there's encryption at that layer and I don't worry about security, and when I disconnect from the VPN to download my personal email, it's configured to use SSL to keep it private.)
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
What the article doesn't even *begin* to talk about is what privacy protections Google will provide, if any, or whether it's possible to get a static address (extra-price, if at all?), or whether you'll be allowed to run servers on it (and what's a server, anyway? IM clients are really servers for the media channel, as are many game clients.)
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
So far none of my customers have ordered RFC1149 service instead of Internet, and if they're building IP-over-pressurized-nitrogen using Guinness cans and string, they're obtaining them locally.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Three channels doesn't seem like much. It's a bit disturbing to realize that a city-wide WiFi network such as what Google proposes (or like the ones set up and operated by the cities themselves) could become a kind of near-monopoly (unless you're willing to harm network performance), where the first-comer sets the rules of access (pricing, terms of use, etc.).
"In prison you just have to shut your eyes and take it. Here you have to shut your eyes and give it."
... my pony?
They did it for an intangible, yet valuable, thing called goodwill. Google had $122 million of it as of the end of 2004. (See note 6 to the financials in Google's 2004 annual report) Sounds like a good reason to me. :)