Comments on: Google reveals wireless hopes in a patent

The company's definition of a truly open wireless network is in conflict with how wireless operators do business today.

[frblfrbl]

Brilliant!

[summershoe]

Kudos to Google. Our current systems stifles competition. If Google gets their way we can go from lagging the rest of the world in cell phone technology to leading it. Not being able to switch seamlessly from a 2.5G to 3G network is a problem specific to the iPhone. Most companies have already figured out how to do this and more (i.e. T-mobile's cellular/wi-fi phones)

[Charbax]

I think Google could realize this vision faster then you could think. FCC could decide before the Election, if Obama wins, he might back a huge spectrum reform initiative. First Android device to be compatible with the new White Spaces spectrum could quickly be sold below $200 and could be made to roam from one network to the other and manage on-demand wireless bandwidth auctions automatically.

The device will be below $200 unsubsidized. Bandwidth will be below $1 per Gygabyte.

[dargon19888]

Sorry to be the cynic, but Google is doing this for their own personal interest and gains. Free or cheap pipe means more multi-media surfing and more advertisements to be viewed.
After all they own the online advertising market. They only way they can grow is to get more ways for you to see their ads.

Their growth into mobile and LBS is to do just that.

[mcquiggd]

Personally, I agree with your comment... it is ironic that Microsoft has been the subject of repeated attacks by legislative bodies, for doing exactly what Google does every single day...without any legal challenge. How many new 'initiatives' - usually press releases about possible patents (more perpetual 'beta' Google apps, anyone?)

Now, it seems that Google wants to wipe out the Mobile ISP market - and establish the lowest common denominator in terms of price vs access to Google, and the advertising platform that allows Google to even exist. No thanks.

I run a software company, and while I consider price when agreeing contracts for key services, I pay primary attention to : quality of service, SLA's, and adherance, security, and legal responsibility.

I would love to see the same standards that legislative bodies apply to Microsoft, also applied to Google. One of those companies has already survived - I doubt if the 'new challenger' would, bearing in mind it's financial platform of re-marketing your own data back to yourself, and intimidating the companies who act as go betweens in the 'transaction'.

[lixpaulian]

" They only way they can grow is to get more ways for you to see their ads."

Yeah, that might be so, but I have nothing against as long as I can benefit from a cheap and reliable wireless service. I, for one, am prepared for this trade-off.

[sachapp464]

dargon19888, Google is a business. Of course they are doing this to make money. No business does anything unless it is to make money. That's how business works. That doesn't mean anything that makes money isn't a good idea.

[sachapp464]

dargon19888, Google is a business. Of course they are doing this to make money. No business does anything unless it is to make money. That's how business works. That doesn't mean anything that makes money isn't a good idea.

[the_ricochet]

I love Google.

[honorable1]

Once an Evil corporation. Always an evil corporation. Foolgle could care less about the entire world except themselves.

[yacahuma]

Please explain. So Google is patenting an idea. Does that mean if it ever gets real, everyone has to pay them? How is that different from me patenting a UFO? Please someone explain.

[caiste]

If any of you had been abroad, you would know how easy it is to switch networks.

FYI: when you're on roaming, you are not tied to any of the available networks.
Your service provider may have special agreements with one of the national carriers, for you to get a better price. And your phone may default to this one. But you aren't tied to it in any way.
So when your device registers to a new network, you normally receive a welcoming SMS that sometimes includes the fees at which you'll be billed by your own provider. If you do register to the associated provider you'll even receive those SMSs in your own language.

So the technology is already there. And because any carrier you connect to knows "exactly" where you are, it's just up to them to offer you the price they like. Google never invents. They just accelerate the things that are only slowly coming up. That's why they win, cause they give you something you're already asking for, or were about to. Unless you never minded the b*llsh*t you were given. (remember hotmail, yahoo mail, web search, windows search...)

Let there be rock!!!
All the benefits belong to us!

[Vuki777]

Is Google working with Voyant for it's White Space radios or has it developed it's own? It seems that Voyant was successful is developing working White Space radios and that it shipped an initial order to an un-named customer:

http://www.voyant.net/company/news/press/articledetail.aspx?id=24688