Google's Mountain View Wi-Fi Network Hits a Snag
There's a chance that Google may miss the June launch date for a wireless network its building in Mountain View, Calif., or make the deadline, but with a network that doesn't have the promised coverage. Google's begun testing the network and, in so doing, has discovered it might need to add more Wi-Fi transmitters than originally thought to deliver the coverage and service quality it promised, according to Ellis Burns, the city's economic development manager. "It's not clear now whether they will have to, but they could be pushing" the launch to July or beyond, Burns said of recent talks Google's had with the city. A Google spokeswoman said the company still intends to light the network in June, but there's a "potential possibility" more access points will be needed. Google expects to learn a lot more once the network's activated, she adds. The reason why Google decided to build the network was both as an homage to its hometown, and, more importantly, as an exercise in what it takes to get a Wi-Fi network up and running. So maybe it's learning one of those lessons now that it can apply going forward. The possible delay could also prove to be a strike against Google continuing to build Wi-Fi networks on its own. Rather, it may use the experience to decide it will go another route: using partnerships with established providers. It's already got one of these Wi-Fi networks in the works. Google and Net provider EarthLink have been tapped to build a citywide Wi-Fi network in San Francisco. According to sources, the two intend to build another network somewhere in the San Francisco Bay Area. |
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Comments (18)
This is interesting news and will help to inform San Francisco as it goes into the Earthlink/Google negotiations. It seems clear that Muni WiFi is still somewhat untested. I have read stories about WAZMetro in Tempe,AZ and St Cloud Fl both needing to add addtional transmitters. Besides the hills and the older construction which will make outside pentration much more difficult, San Francisco has an additional burden since the RFP has a significantly higher coverage requirement of 95% outdoors and 90% indoors. See my blog for many more details on the San Francsico Initiative. http://www.webnetic.net
Posted by kimo crossman | May 3, 2006 11:39 PM
Very cool Ben! so glad Google, is determined to get this wi-fi umbrella up & running. Is there any word or website to check status on how much or how many transmitters are actually going up? Does anyone know the actual range & size of the affected wi-fi area thus far..and how much more is there to go? Will this area range from town limits of Los Altos all the way to Sunnyvale... Just one of many curious & anxious wifi googlers!
Posted by jc. | May 4, 2006 2:09 PM
I am very much aware of St. CLoud having to add both AP and Backhaul links to their single radio Tropos Radios. This will also be the case when and if Google decides to continue using the single radio systems. I am not aware of any changes to the 650 Node Strix deployment in Tempe, and would recommend that Google seriously look at the Strix 4 & 6 Radio Mesh nodes if they are going to try and deal with a highly dense WiFi world like Mountain VIew and SF. Other wise they will be adding bandwidth to AP on a recurring basis. Jacomo
Posted by Jacomo | May 4, 2006 4:21 PM
Google Wi-Fi gets knocked in Silicon Valley; 'They Don't Know What They're Doing' says exec.
Posted by Google Watch | May 4, 2006 9:14 PM
so little facts and so much fiction...Funny that no one says anyting when a cell phone company adds a radio here or there to fine tune coverage. hmmm.
Posted by truth | May 5, 2006 3:05 AM
There is no question that Google is clueless when it comes to wireless. San Francisco will rue the day they approved Google/Earthlink to deliver sub-standard service to their denizens. The level of Google cluelessness is almost beyond belief. And, gosh, 'cmon on! Tropos radios? What a joke. RF performance suitable for a LAN being deployed in a MAN environment. Gag me. Oh! Did I mention in SF they're going to use ALL of the 900 MHz band, 2.4 GHz band, and the 5 GHz band, in addition to licensed frequencies? I can't wait till the Google Wideband Noise Generator starts wiping out personal Access Points, not to mention other legitimate uses of unlicensed frequencies that aren't wi-fi. Fun, fun, fun in SF! This is all very, very sad. Can you say "the blind leading the blind"?
Posted by TruthMan | May 5, 2006 6:03 AM
This is all very expected, I don't think I've ever read a city wide WiFi Mesh deployment that has gone up without a hitch or a delay. Coverage has always been the issue with these big city wide deploymements especially when you expect the built-in, low powered wifi clients to be able to connect to the network. You're absolutely right about Tropos. The single radio solution is inherently flawed. In a single radio solution, the radio splits it's airtime providing client access and backhauling client traffic to the next Tropos radio. This of course results in reduced performance over consecutive hops. The fact is that Tropos radios transmits at a much higher power than your typical wifi client which is great for Tropos to Tropos communications, but there is a known fact that when high powered radios talk to other high powered radios, they become deaf to low powered radios. This of course then reduces the coverage for these built in laptop clients and results in customers requiring higher powered CPEs to connect to the service. It's almost a catch-22 because when you add more radios it may not improve client coverage since your allowing more Tropos radios to see and talk to more other Tropos radios. I would recommend as well that Google take a serious look at another vendor ideally a vendor that uses multiple radios where client access and backhaul is handled by different radios.
Posted by Dirty Truth | May 5, 2006 1:25 PM
I look forward to free Wi-Fi coverage in public places and business establishments. I consider it right up there with free speach in importance for empowering the indifidual. I call it infinite Wi-Fi, or WiFinite. Everyone in communications with everyone brings us approximate being a cosmic intellect. We're smarter people. I consider it a legitimate function of government to make the air speak this language for everyone.
Posted by stewart stanton | May 8, 2006 9:58 AM
Okay, Mr./Ms. "There is no question that Google is clueless when it comes to wireless." It's really cute that you think you're some kind of authority, but I'm fairly certain (since I live in Mountain View and work for Google) that Google has plenty of people on staff that know more about wifi and technology in general than you do. Why don't you find something more important to do than be arrogant concerning a subject of which you have no real part?
Posted by M | May 10, 2006 4:28 PM
In the Googleplex, a wireless Internet network fails, and questions are raised about Google's muni Wi-Fi goals.
Posted by Google Watch | May 11, 2006 9:47 PM
In the Googleplex, a wireless Internet network fails, and questions are raised about Google's muni Wi-Fi goals.
Posted by Google Watch | May 11, 2006 9:49 PM
In the Googleplex, a wireless Internet network fails, and questions are raised about Google's muni Wi-Fi goals.
Posted by Google Watch | May 11, 2006 9:49 PM
Google can't keep the wireless networks working upto snuff in the Googleplex. And it wants to blanket entire cities with Wi-Fi?
Posted by Google Watch | May 11, 2006 9:52 PM
Google can't keep the wireless networks working upto snuff in the Googleplex. And it wants to blanket entire cities with Wi-Fi?
Posted by Google Watch | May 11, 2006 9:53 PM
Google can't keep the wireless networks working in the Googleplex. And it wants to blanket entire cities with Wi-Fi?
Posted by Google Watch | May 11, 2006 10:02 PM
Google can't keep the wireless networks working in the Googleplex. And it wants to blanket entire cities with Wi-Fi?
Posted by Google Watch | May 11, 2006 10:42 PM
Google can't keep the wireless networks working in the Googleplex. And it wants to blanket entire cities with Wi-Fi?
Posted by Google Watch | May 12, 2006 10:08 PM
Ben - Thanks for the update. Please let us know if there is any way non-Google people can get in on the beta testing. I can see the transmitter from my window, and I'd love to give it a try ( and stop my DSL bill.) Thanks again for bringing up the service. It will be interesting. By the way, Nokia had a free peer-to-peer beta service about 4 years ago downtown. I don't know if there is anything to learn from their experience.
Posted by Peter Darrah | May 18, 2006 12:29 PM