Forget Google's Loon balloons and Facebook's drones to provide Internet access to people across the country and around the world for now, as these companies are also considering more down-to-earth solutions to give online access to those stuck in "last mile" areas around the country.
In Google's case, the Alphabet subsidiary plans to make use of the Google Fiber lines it has laid out around key cities in the United States to beam wireless broadband directly into American homes.
A large undertaking such as this would inevitably pit Google against other juggernaut broadband providers such as AT&T, Verizon, Time Warner and Comcast. Regardless, Google has become well-versed in providing Internet access to homes already via Google Fiber and doing so wirelessly would help the company reach "last mile" homes.
Craig Barratt, the man charged to head Google Fiber, revealed that the company has indeed experimented with less loony solutions to shoot Internet access into homes using different kinds of wireless technologies.
"One of the things that is intriguing about wireless is that it allows you reach houses and users that are in lower density settings - where fiber becomes too expensive," Barratt shared in an interview with Re/code.
Google isn't alone, however. The founder of Aereo (the company that tried - and failed - to allow viewers to bypass broadcasters and watch their TV programs on-demand via the Internet), Chet Kanojia, is attempting to do the same with his new company, Starry, and even Facebook is at it too using its Terragraph high-frequency wireless Internet.
It's not that Google is leaving behind its moonshot experiments for more realistic goals. In fact, Fiber was once considered a moonshot experiment that eventually became a viable business. But it seems that fixed wireless broadband is the way to go for Google to get more people on the Internet to use Google services.
"We think, over time, there will be a sort of heterogeneous mix of technologies that we can use, depending upon the type of problem we're trying to solve. But I want to make it clear that our focus on wireless technologies is really around fixed - so providing fixed wireless broadband," Barratt added.
Nonetheless, Google coming into the wireless broadband business is certain to shake up the market, and hopefully inject enough competition into the market to make incumbents actually compete and get customers the best services and deals possible.
