Google is reportedly planning to set up wireless networks and offer related services in emerging markets in the near future. According to the Wall Street Journal, the networks would be set up outside the big cities where wired Internet connections aren’t available. Moreover, the company is looking to partner with local companies for the deployment.
“As part of the plan, Google has been working on building an ecosystem of new microprocessors and low-cost smartphones powered by its Android mobile operating system to connect to the wireless networks, these people said. And the Internet search giant has worked on making special balloons or blimps, known as high-altitude platforms, to transmit signals to an area of hundreds of square miles, though such a network would involve frequencies other than the TV broadcast ones,” says the WSJ report.
The report goes on to say helping connect more people to the Internet would help Google get more potential users for its search engine and other products/services such as YouTube, Google Play media and app store. More users will help drive more online advertising to Google services.
Narayanan Shivakumar, a former Google engineering executive, says the expansion will help Google net more data about consumer behaviour – that would allow it create more personalized services and target users with more relevant ads. “And by profiting from data it gleans from how people use a network it operates, Google could build a business more cheaply than traditional carriers do today,” he adds.
“Providing wireless networks would allow Google to circumvent incumbent cable companies and wireless carriers. Such companies, particularly in the U.S. and Europe, have clashed with Google, believing it is unfairly reaping profits on the back of their networks. Google has long feared such companies would make it harder for its Web services to work properly on the networks,” the report quotes people with direct knowledge of the matter as saying.
It’s notable Google already provides wired Internet in select cities of the US through its fiber-optic deployments. The company also plans to ‘powerful Wi-Fi networks’ in these cities.