Google Eyeing How Mobile Devices Will Use City Wi-Fi Networks

Kinda interesting, if only conceptual till now: Google has met with Motorola and Sony to explore how their devices might be able to take advantage of municipal Wi-Fi networks, an area which Google is moving into with its bid for the San Francisco project. It already operates a network in its home town of Mountain View, California.

“We’re doing everything we can to make this a playground for devices,” said Christopher Sacca, principal in new business development at Google said at a talk.

One such device: Sony’s PSP game platform. “There’s like five million of those in the U.S. now, they’ve all got Wi-Fi in them. We’re trying to do what we can to make those devices able to log on to this network,” Sacca said.

On developing a Wi-Fi network, one of Google’s biggest challenges is bandwidth-hungry applications, such as streaming video or file-sharing, that hog the network’s capacity.

Also, some insight into how these might work: Google would provide a basic, free service of about 300 Kbps, possibly offering higher quality services for a charge. The company would also let other ISPs resell services on the infrastructure, giving Google another revenue source.

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