Google Inc. has plans to develop wireless networks in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, a move that will connect over a billion people to the Internet according to a new report by Wall Street Journal.According to the report, quoting people familiar with the strategy, “These wireless networks would serve areas such as sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia to dwellers outside of major cities where wired Internet connections aren’t available.”
The report added that the networks aim at improving Internet speeds in urban centers in emerging markets.
Google will work with Africa and Asia’s local telecommunications firms and equipment providers, create business models to support them.
According to the report, Google is already in talks with regulators in Kenya and South Africa on regulations so as to allow such networks to be built in the countries. The firm has already built an ecosystem of microprocessors and affordable Android smartphones and high-altitude platforms to connect to the network and transmit signals to an area of hundreds of square miles over frequencies. Google is also interested in ceating a satellite-based network.
Seemingly the firm wants to have many people online so as its Web-search engine, video service YouTube and Google Play media and thee app store gain users as over half of the world’s population aren’t online.
Google is not venturing into wireless networks for the first time, it’s fiber-optic cables are already working in homes in cities in Kansas and being expanded to Missouri, Texas and Utah.
