Google Goes Wireless In The Land Of The Free

In the heart of Silicon Valley a revolution is about to take place. It could change the Universe as we know it. Don't laugh, this revolution will grab you by the short wires and turn your world upside down.

It will affect your life and the lives of your children's children. It might just be the spark that changes everything...

It all has to do with the Internet.

Someone wants to give the Internet its wings. Get rid of all those wires and monthly bills. Set it free. Let it fly among the stars. Broadcast it out into the stratosphere. Or in other words, make it free for everyone.

And it's about time.

Are we talking about a free wireless Internet for the masses? Well, not exactly and not yet. But it's the start of such a concept that could quickly become a reality for many people very soon. It has to start somewhere and why not in Silicon Valley. Where else would you want to start a free wireless revolution but a place that really knows how to cash in its chips.

And who else would you expect to lead this Internet Parade than Google; the all knowing, all seeing, omnipotent and undisputed ruler of the mighty cursor.

Google wants to give free broadband Wi-Fi service to the small city of Mountain View, sometimes AKA-ed as the Capital of Silicon Valley. Located between the Santa Cruz Mountains and San Francisco Bay, Mountain View is home to around 72,000 young, vibrant and smart residents. The median age is 32.8 years old. Pure Google fodder.

Google has proposed a system of providing free Wi-Fi via 300 transmitters on light poles which would virtually make the city one big hotspot. City leaders now have to decide if Google should get the go ahead for this free Internet. In its proposal, Google has plainly stated its own self-interest in such a system.

"In our self-interest, we believe that giving more people the ability to access the Internet will drive more traffic to Google and hence more revenue to Google and its partner websites."

Obviously, Google has everything to gain. Ad revenue and the Internet is its lifeblood. Why not expand that lifeblood. And why not make the Internet pay for itself. Why shouldn't it be free and ad supported -- cut out all those monthly ISP bills users now have to pay.

Will the majority of Internet users be willing to give up their ISP bills for a few Google ads on webpages? In a heartbeat!

Sure, there will be naysayers, all revolutions have them. Commercialism of the web is a totally bad road to traverse. Capitalism is wrong. But it's a moot argument, the web is already monetized up to the yin-yang. Users should get something back for a change. It might be totally in Google's self-interest to give people a free Internet but there's no denying that such a gesture would also be a way of sharing all that ad revenue.

A free Internet that spans the Globe and beyond -- available to everyone. Such a system is probably a natural evolution. The Internet is already turning into a billion channel universe broadcasting its contents into the stratosphere. Why not give all this content some wings.

Why not make this broadcasting system free and ad supported. There's a subtle democratic gesture in what Google is offering. Will people accept this offer or try to hold back evolution. Will they enable Google "to be a good corporate citizen and play a pioneering role in a public-private partnership to bridge the digital divide."

Of course, this is just the start, if Google's Proposal flies, a free Internet will only be a click away.

Today, Mountain View. Tomorrow, the Universe.

Bring it on! I want my Free Internet!

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Copyright 2005. This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

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Will Fractional T1 Solve This Problem

Here's the picture you're looking at:

You have a small business....with less than 10 employees....who are all hooked into a router attached to a DSL modem.

You all need to be logged into an online database through the internet all day. You and your staff access the database to do lots of data entry as well as uploading of files. When all of you are logged in, the upload/download speed frequently is incredibly slow.

When you run DSL speed tests on any of your office machines, it shows around 1.1 mbps in the morning. By mid-afternoon, the speeds are down to 600 kbps on most of the machines. You've even seen them as low as 350 kbps.

Would a Fractional T1 solve this problem? Fractional T1s in your area run around $290/month. You don't believe a standard internet 1.5mbps T1 line is really affordable for you at $399/month. (Dollar figures are just an example for purposes of this article).

Well.....here's your answer:

Reliability, dependability, and fitness for a particular purpose have more to do with the shared nature of the services that you are using than they do with "speed". DSL is a shared resource service. Shared means that many customers are sharing an underlying internet backbone connection....that's why your speeds drop during the day ... more users are watching music videos from home in the afternoon than during the morning, sucking up all the provider's bandwidth. If the "fractional T1" provider will also be sharing their connection to the internet backbone with many of their customers, then you will likely find the same thing at the new carrier, though the busy times would be different.

The provider offering you a "T1" for $399/month is also likely sharing their backbone connection.

Remember that a shared service provider will measure speed from his office to your office, and not guarantee throughput to the internet backbone. If the shared provider has a 45M connection, and he sells 30 customers a 1.5M connection, what happens to the 31st customer? A shared provider will plop him on the same connection. Same thing with the 32nd customer, and the 33rd customer, and that's where speed problems arise.

What you need is a dedicated connection to the internet backbone, where you have your own slice of bandwidth that is not shared with other users. You say you can't afford $399. That's $20/day. That's one hour of a decent employee. What you can't afford is problems with your internet circuit, and shared connections are causing you problems.

However....before changing out the network facility and rushing to more bandwidth, first give the current carrier the chance to troubleshoot what might be broken!

Michael is the owner of FreedomFire Communications....including DS3-Bandwidth.com and Business-VoIP-Solution.com. Michael also authors Broadband Nation where you're always welcome to drop in and catch up on the latest BroadBand news, tips, insights, and ramblings for the masses.

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