Kevin Bostic
Google has filed a request with the FCC for a license to test a wireless network on its Mountain View campus, and at least one observer believes the search giant is working on an LTE network of its own, possibly in preparation of entering the wireless provider sector on its own terms.
Washington, D.C.-based consulting wireless engineer Steven Crowley writes on his personal site that the high level of confidentiality surrounding Google's filings with the FCC is conspicuous, and that even the company's request for confidential treatment has had portions redacted.
The filings also contain a number of other oddly redacted areas, including the output power of the devices being tested.
What leads Crowley to suspect an LTE network may be in the offing is a code supplied on the form. The code F9W is used sometimes for LTE devices, and it appears in Google's filing for the emission designator.
As Crowley notes, it is not possible to know exactly what may emerge from Google's secretive wireless testing. The search company has already rolled out a fiber-based Internet service in Kansas City, teasing a possible disruption of the wired Internet service industry. Analysts estimate, though, that rolling out such a service nationwide would cost roughly $140 billion.
Entering the wireless carrier market could prove an attractive option for the Android maker, which has already been rumored to have engaged in talks with entities such as Dish Network —also known to be pondering a move into wireless.
Whether Google would be moving into the wireless industry on its own is also unknown. The tests Google is currently carrying out are being conducted on a frequency range held by Clearwire, a group in which Sprint recently took a controlling share. Sprint, itself, was recently acquired by Japanese carrier Softbank.
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
Malcolm Owen
Wesley Hilliard
Marko Zivkovic
37 Comments
This is great! ADS by sms, more phone calls from companies trying to sell us more stuff...
Sprint now completely controls Clearwire which uses the 2.5Ghz frequency. That was used for Wimax but will now be turned into LTE moving forward. From an article: "Clearwire%u2019s 2.5GHz spectrum is uniquely positioned to be used as a global LTE band, provided a certain band configuration is used. In the past, Clearwire has stated that it wishes to use the 2.5GHz spectrum assets it has for a capacity-based TD-LTE network. To that end, Clearwire%u2019s spectrum was codified in the 3GPP as band class 41, a TDD band that covers the entire frequency range. There is one major problem with this plan: the lack of economic scale. There simply aren%u2019t that many devices that support it at this time. That could change if Chinese mobile operator China Mobile starts ordering dual-band TD-LTE devices that work for both its band 40 TD-LTE trial network and Clearwire%u2019s future band 41 network. China Mobile%u2019s 600 million subscriber base makes it a very good target to force the economic potential of the band to rise. Additionally, SoftBank Mobile (the Japanese network operator owned by SoftBank) has a TD-LTE network operating on band 41 in Japan right now." Sprint has plenty of room in that frequency to lease out some to companies like Google or others. Even better if Google agrees to help build out the towers. This is the one frequency and band that truly has the potential to be global as it is used and available in far more countries than any other frequency.
Wish they'd focus more on the landline gigabit Internet they promised. You know, build that out, terrify the existing Internet providers, force them to upgrade their services, and then whatever happens happens.
If Google winds up being my ISP, I'm fine with that. Sure, they'll look at absolutely everything I do, but they can't do squat with it! I don't use any Google services, so I won't be served any ads based on anything I've surfed! They can't make any money off me that way, and their advertisers will learn that!
"So they'll just inject ad HTML pages in between every 50th URL you visit."
And that will instantly destroy that part of their company, leaving behind an upgraded infrastructure taken over by honorable (well, less disreputable) companies. No one would accept their browsing being hijacked by their ISP for the purpose of serving ads.
[quote name="AppleInsider" url="/t/155645/googles-confidential-test-could-be-super-dense-lte-network-on-clearwire-spectrum#post_2265116"]Google has filed a request with the FCC for a license to test a wireless network on its Mountain View campus, and at least one observer believes the search giant is working on an LTE network of its own, possibly in preparation of entering the wireless provider sector on its own terms.[/quote] Cool. So I wonder if the carriers are kicking themselves for going so far out of the way to talk customers into buying Android phones instead of iPhones.
I read a version of this story a day or two ago, with additional details linked here:
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Google-Testing-Secret-Wireless-Network-122873