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By Angela Hey

About this blog: I write about technology companies, trends and events in and around Mountain View. Where else can you find startups nurtured by Y-Combinator and  (More)

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Google founder Larry Page sees many wireless business opportunities

Uploaded: Nov 6, 2008
Google's co-founder, Larry Page, sees multiple opportunities for wireless products and services. He was speaking with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman, Kevin Martin (http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-286610A1.pdf), at the Wireless Communications Association (http://www.wcai.com) conference in San Jose today.

Page noted that even in San Jose's Fairmont Hotel it was hard to get a cellphone to work behind the ballroom stage. Also to logon to the hotel network required network ID and password - not something the busy executive has time to mess with on his T-Mobile G1 phone, the first to run Google's Android software. So one opportunity is to make wireless networking easy, foolproof and reliable.

Page reckons that we could be 20-30% more productive if only our wireless networks worked properly. Just think how many people can't work well because they are out of range of WiFi, their network is too slow, they drop a call or access is too expensive.

Last Tuesday, on November 4th, the FCC agreed to open up the spectrum between TV channels for wireless devices. This will allow many more people to connect to the Internet. Because television channels broadcast on different frequencies, each area has different spectrum frequencies available. So a stipulation is that devices must have GPS so that they can be connected on the right frequency using a database.

Clearwire with Sprint (Xohm to be called Clearwire) will also offer WiMAX networks. WiMAX networks will enable wireless communications over greater distances than WiFi. There's also the 700 MHz C-Block spectrum that Verizon won earlier this year and thanks to Google's lobbying has to be open for new wireless devices. Google already has deals with Clearwire for its applications and is an investor in Clearwire. WiMAX looks much more attractive now that it is becoming more open. Most WiMAX networks will be outside the US - they are being deployed fast in countries like India right now.

Entrepreneurs can create new devices, new applications and new network services for these networks. Really smart radios can be made that tune to the right frequency automatically.

Larry Page sees many small companies offering services in the TV white space spectrum - just as there were once many Internet service providers. He says that in 2008, a billion WiFi chips will be sold and they are about $5 each. When that happens for other wireless networks they will really take off.

One impediment to fast wireless networks is fast connections to the Internet. Google employees can get 1 Gigabit per second (Gbps) access because they rent conduits from the town of Mountain View that carry fiber to their premises. We are not all so lucky!

I asked Larry if Google would be testing the white space wireless networks in Mountain View. First he thinks the chips will be available in about 18 months and that if the vendors are pragmatic they'll use existing WiFi software, so as not to reinvent the wheel. Then he says he doesn't know what Google will do, but it's quite possible there'll be tests in our locality. IEEE is already working on the 802.22 standards (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.22) for WRAN - Wireless Regional Area Networks for TV White Spaces.

One of the reasons that white space networks are now feasible is that technology can now help devices get more reliable signals. So radio interference problems like those that that made TV pictures turn to snow when you turned on a hairdryer can be avoided.

There's going to be some great businesses in this space so let me know if you find any in Mountain View.

Picture shows Kevin Martin and Larry Page answering questions at the WCA conference in San Jose.






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Comments

Posted by wimaxed, a resident of Blossom Valley,
on Nov 7, 2008 at 5:28 am

Great to hear FCC approved the deal. Clearwire and Sprint have been working on this for some time and at some point in time they dropped the deal but I?m glad to hear WiMAX will finally go nation wide.

? http://www.WiMAXED.com


Posted by wimaxed, a resident of another community,
on Nov 9, 2008 at 7:01 am

WiMAX has the time on the market advantage but even though LTE is years away companies like Verizon and ATT that choose LTE as their future 4G technology will do anything to keep WiMAX as invisible as possible with the existing 3G technology. For example iPhone is one of the factors that will make the existing customers very unlikely to switch to WiMAX.

--- http://www.WiMAXED.com


Posted by Angela Hey, Mountain View Voice Blogger,
on Dec 2, 2008 at 3:13 pm

Angela Hey is a registered user.

I agree that the mobile phone companies like AT&T and Verizon will have the dominant share. As a passionate iPhone user I will either use the mobile phone network or WiFi. However, one big problem in the US is that phone companies don't like you to use your mobile phone account to connect your computer to the Internet. So for people who want to buy another account, and who don't have Verizon cards in their PCs, WiMAX will be a choice, particularly in rural areas.


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