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 In a public but little-noticed application with the U.S. Federal
Communications Commission on Monday, Google asked the agency for
permission to conduct tests in California across different wireless
spectrums, including a rarely-used millimeter-wave frequency capable
of transmitting large amounts of data.
It is unclear from the heavily redacted filing what exactly Google
intends to do, but it does signal the Internet giant's broader
ambition of controlling Internet connectivity. The technology it
seeks to test could form the basis of a wireless connection that can
be broadcast to homes, obviating the need for an actual ground cable
or fiber connection, experts say.
By beaming Internet services directly into homes, Google would open
a new path now thoroughly dominated by Verizon, AT&T, Comcast and
other entrenched cable and broadband providers. It could potentially
offer a quicker and cheaper way to deliver high-speed Internet
service, a potential threat to the cable-telecoms oligopoly, experts
said.
“From a radio standpoint it’s the closest thing to fiber there is,”
said Stephen Crowley, a wireless engineer and consultant who
monitors FCC filings, noting that millimeter frequencies can
transmit data over short distances at speeds of several gigabits per
second.
“You could look at it as a possible wireless extension of their
Google Fiber wireless network, as a way to more economically serve
homes. Put up a pole in a neighborhood, instead of having to run
fiber to each home,” said Crowley.
Craig Barratt, the head of the Google Access and Energy division
leading the effort to offer high-speed fiber networks in Kansas City
and other locations, signed off as the authorized person submitting
Google's FCC application.
The world’s No.1 Internet search engine has expanded into providing
consumers with services such as Internet access. The company said it
wants to roll out its high-speed Internet service to more than 30
U.S. cities, and in 2013 it struck a deal to provide free wireless
Internet access to 7,000 Starbucks cafes across America.
Earlier this year, technology news website The Information reported
that Google was exploring ways to offer a full-fledged wireless
service, with voice and Internet access, in markets where the
company already offers its Fiber service.
Google’s application to conduct the 180-day test is heavily redacted
to protect confidential information that Google said would provide
“valuable insight into Google’s technology innovations and potential
business plans and strategy.”
The purpose of the test is so that Google can “expeditiously test
radios in a way that is likely to contribute to the development,
extension, expansion or utilization of the radio art,” Google stated
cryptically in one of the filings.
Google declined to comment on the FCC filing.
COULD BE JUST BASIC RESEARCH
Wireless experts noted that the tests could simply be basic research
that does not ultimately lead to new products or services. In the
past, Google has submitted applications with the FCC to test
wireless communications.
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The latest test, which Google hopes to begin on Nov. 13, will
include three sites in the San Francisco Bay Area, including one in
San Mateo county and two locations a half-mile apart which appear to
be on Google’s Mountain View, California campus. Google said the
effort will use radio transmitters operating in the 5.8 GHz
frequency, the 24.2 GHz frequency and in the millimeter wave bands
of 71-76 GHz and 81-86 GHz, according to the application.
Millimeter wave frequencies work best over short distances, such as
a few city blocks, and require a direct line-of-sight connection to
a receiver. But multiple such devices placed next to each other,
atop buildings could provide an alternative to in-the-ground fiber
cables used for shuttling data throughout a city as well as for
delivering Internet access directly to residences, theorized several
wireless experts.
“This could be anything from something relatively small scale, like
a way to supplement their existing fiber system to something like
how to put a wireless cloud around your city that leverages your
fiber backbone,” said Harold Feld, a senior vice president at Public
Knowledge, a non-profit that focuses on broadband access and
competition issues and which receives funding from tech companies
including Google.
The FCC is scheduled to hold a meeting on Friday about the use of
wireless spectrum above 24 GHz for mobile services, including ways
the agency can facilitate the development and deployment of
technology using such frequencies.
Google noted that the tests are for narrow-bandwidth transmissions.
According to Crowley, the application suggests that Google will not
be transmitting data over the networks, but sending simple pings
between locations to gauge how the signals travel over distances and
in different terrains.
Google appears to be trying to get ahead of the competition in
understanding the potential to use the millimeter frequencies now
being discussed by the FCC, said Public Knowledge's Feld.
“If they can pull it off, they will have a potentially very
innovative next-generation delivery system,” he said.
(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Bernard Orr)
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