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If Google’s Free WiFi Is So Successful, Why Hasn’t It Spread Nationally?

posted on August 18, 2009


Can you believe it’s been 3 years since Google first offered free WiFi to Mountain View, CA residents? I remember thinking, "It won’t be long before Google offers free WiFi all around the country!"

I’m still waiting.

Maybe I should move to Mountain View, because it appears the Google-sponsored free WiFi is a roaring success–with 19,000 users and 600 gigabytes of data transferred each day. Not bad for a coverage area of just 12 square miles.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Google has seen a steady increase in the number of handheld devices accessing its WiFi hotspot:

“We continue to experience extremely high demand – both in terms of users and bandwidth,” said Karl Garcia at Google, who leads the Google WiFi project. "We’ve seen the iPhone and other Wi-Fi enabled handheld devices as significant drivers of the high demand we see. Currently nearly a quarter of all devices that connect to our network are handhelds, compared to almost none when we launched the network,” said Garcia.

Tropos–the company behind hardware–is not shy in bragging about the success of Google’s WiFi network, but I have a question. If it’s so darn successful, why, in three years of existence, has it not spread to other parts of the country?

I want free WiFi in Raleigh, NC…oh, and your city too!


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  • http://www.terryhoward.net/ Terry Howard

    I think at least part of it might be the legal issues that surround it. I know in at least a few cities’ cases that they have tried to implement a free WFi system only to have local utilities lobby to have it stopped, citing that it was unfair for competing pay services that had coverage in those areas. My guess is they don’t want to stir up a dozen hornets’ nest simultaneously, and are looking at all the angles thoroughly before jumping in. They bought up all that dark fiber for a reason.
    .-= Terry Howard´s last blog ..Formula For Success =-.

  • http://myeasyonlinepay.com Samantha Milner

    we get free wifi here in portugal and if i sit on my balcony i have it for free 24/7 which i cant complain about. Living in europe the first thing i knew about free wifi was getting it from mcdonalds which was strange.

    Living in portugal is pretty special though because they were the last to get broadband theres is the best!

    kind regards

    sam
    X
    .-= Samantha Milner´s last blog ..Social Bookmarking For More Traffic =-.

  • http://www.vacation-rental-wonderland.com/about.php Craig Mullins

    I wish they would… Here in Pleasanton, CA our city offers free WIFI in the downtawn area…

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