THE BIG three internet sites Google, eBay and Amazon might build their own wireless internet if the US telcos move to charge them for sending customers to their sites.
AT&T and the telcos have got government backing to charge Google and other Web sites extortion-type fees unless Google and others pay for adequate bandwidth.
Now it seems that Google and the other big sites are going to tell them to go forth and multiply and they will build their own connections into punter’s homes.
It is all industry speculation, but Investor’s Business Daily has indicated that with so much wireless spectrum up for grabs, all the big three have to do is buy it and construct a high-bandwidth wireless pipe into people’s homes and businesses.
Google has been named as one of the companies expected to put a bid on two big blocks of spectrum soon. If it gets in to a consortium with eBay, and Amazon, Google could spend the many billions of dollars needed to buy parts of the spectrum, and build a high-speed, nationwide wireless network. Google has the cash itself and eBay and Amazon are also sitting on a fair bit. If the system were good enough it could take the Internet out of the hands of the US telcos, who would be critically damaged by the loss of VoIP and broadband accounts.
I don’t think there would be many of our US readers who would mourn their passing and the introduction of a wireless interweb.
News source: THEINQUIRER
