Alphabet believes it can provide wireless internet connections as fast as the 1 gigabit per second offered by Google’s Fiber service.
You may one day be able to wirelessly tap into the internet at speeds as fast as or faster than you can get via a wired connection.
Google parent Alphabet is aiming to cook up a wireless technology that would match the speed of its fastest wired service, Chairman Eric Schmidt said at the company’s annual shareholder meeting Wednesday, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Schmidt said that advances in computer chips and greater accuracy of wireless signals have made “point-to-point” wireless Internet access “cheaper than digging up your garden,” alluding to the fact that companies providing Internet access must lay down cable to your home.
Wired connections currently are much faster than wireless ones. However, stringing cable to your home and neighborhood requires time and expense from internet providers. The trick is to come up with a wireless technology that can match the speed of a wired one so providers can save money and users still enjoy quick access to their favorite websites.
Schmidt said he met with Alphabet CEO Larry Page, Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat and other executives on Tuesday to discuss a speedy wireless technology. Those involved believe they can provide internet access reaching 1 gigabit per second, or 1,000 megabits per second. That’s much higher than the average internet via a wired connection in the US, which reached 14.2 megabits per second in the fourth quarter of 2015, according to network provider Akamai. The 1 gigabit per second goal is also equal to the speed offered by Google’s Fiber service, a wired connection that is currently available in five cities in the US.
Google has been testing wireless access in Kansas City, the first location to hop onto its Fiber service, the Journal said. But the testing is still in the early stage. The company has been trying out different technologies and is aiming to demo a wireless network in the city sometime next year. The technology itself could require special devices in the home to capture the wireless signal.
In the meantime, Google has been busy with its Project Fi, which provides Internet access to users of certain Android phones by combining cellular coverage with Wi-Fi networks and determining which signal is strongest among the various networks.