Google Switches on Free Wi-Fi Network in Mountain View, California

7:35 am on August 17, 2006 | Category: Internet, Wi-Fi, Wireless Technology

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Google Inc. has made good on a promise to blanket its home town of Mountain View, California with free Wi-Fi internet access.

This makes the Silicon Valley town of 72,000 the largest U.S. city to boast a totally free wireless broadband network, ahead of St. Cloud, Florida, an Orlando suburb with about 28,000 residents.

The new network is powered by 380 radio antennae placed throughout the 11.5-square mile city. It offers wireless download speeds of up to 1 Mbps, or roughly comparable to a wired DSL connection.

“We aren’t concerned about being able to handle the load,” commented Google executive, Chris Sacca, who oversaw the free Wi-Fi project. “We think we have built a pretty cool, robust network.”

The internet giant’s next big Wi-Fi project will be the construction of a much larger network, in partnership with EarthLink, in nearby San Francisco. And if this major new project works out anything like the Mountain View deployment has, Google will likely have a big success story on its hands.

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    Published by TeleClick Enterprises
    Edited by Jeremy Maddock