News
Report claims Internet giant plans to deploy mmWave technology from recent acquisition Webpass.
Google has put its Silicon Valley fibre rollout on hold as it considers deploying point-to-point wireless infrastructure instead.
According to a Mercury News report this week, the Internet giant informed city representatives from Mountain View and Palo Alto that the project has been delayed. Google Fiber was also due to start digging its network in San Jose last month, but that plan has been postponed as well.
"We were upset and wanted to know what happened," said Salvador Bustamote, a fibre optic installer, in Monday’s report. "They said that Google was going to re-evaluate this whole project because they were thinking of going aerial."
In June, Google’s parent company Alphabet agreed to acquire Webpass, an ISP that operates fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) networks and point-to-point millimetre wave (mmWave) radio networks, which then connect to in-building Ethernet networks. Its service is currently available in parts of San Francisco, San Deigo, Miami, Chicago, and Boston.
An unnamed source cited by Mercury News claimed that Google is assessing the use of mmWave as a cheaper alternative to fibre.
Google has not given much away.
The report quoted Google Fiber spokeswoman Veronica Navarrete as saying that her company will continue talks with various Silicon Valley cities about rolling out Internet service, but that it takes time to deploy the latest technologies "in alignment with out product roadmap, while understanding local considerations and challenges."
