Google may be pushing super-fast optical wire on random U.S. cities, the most recent being Austin, Texas and Provo, Utah, but it appears the Internet search giant is looking to provide wireless as well.
Only this time, Google isn't offering its new wireless networking services in the U.S., nor, even on the North American continent.
Google, allegedly, is planning to expand its wireless services to Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. At least, that's according to an article by The Wall Street Journal, which reports the company is partnering with local networking companies and governments to fund, build and run wireless networks in emerging markets. Google, according to the Journal, declined to comment on the story.
And there are a variety of ways Google could reach out and grab rural customers.
One of the more obvious solutions to getting wireless to rural customers is to use already established terrestrial airwaves. In particular, Google may try to take advantage of television airwaves - so long as government agencies allow - in order to spread networks out from urban centers. It's a technology that Google and other tech firms have been playing around with for years, and it may be deployed to reach more people.
Google could also opt to raise itself above the competition by flying high-altitude platforms - in the form of balloons or blimps - in order to connect wireless devices over a massive swath of land. This option could net Google the ability to provide wireless to hundreds of square miles of land. And, again, blimp-delivered wireless is another project that Google has been working on.
Then there's space. Google, with some obvious help from its rocket-connected friends, could help to craft a satellite-based wireless network which provides service to hard-to reach areas. It may sound farfetched, but then again, Google Maps and the Google Lunar X program may have been considered absurd not too long ago.
The emerging market - from South America, Africa and Southeast Asia - is set to explode onto the traditionally wealth-oriented tech scene. That, as TechCrunch notes, is why Google wants to be the benevolent company for the world: more Internet means more people online, more people online means more ad, app and business sales.
