Google's intention to go into Wireless Internet could have a great impact on the Internet Service Providers in the US

Oct 16, 2014 20:07 GMT  ·  By

Google may have set eyes on becoming a big player in the Internet Service Providers world and that could be a really good thing.

I’m not saying that having Google take a part in every step you take online doesn’t come with a healthy dose of creepiness, but I am saying that there are plenty of perks to such a move, especially when it comes to the United States.

And that’s because, as I wrote in a previous article, there’s no competition among Internet Service Providers in the United States. Of course, that’s not exactly a surprise. After all, people are enduring speeds that, for most people, mean maybe 30 Mbps and for a few lucky people, 100 Mbps. Even worse is the fact that they’re spending huge fees for these crappy services.

This situation is the result of a lack of competition between companies, the result of allowing these companies to divide the country between themselves, to make sure they don’t step on each other’s toes, to make sure that people don’t really have much of an option if they’re unhappy with the data package they have.

Google Fiber pushes down the subscription prices of competitors

Now, Google’s presence with Google Fiber in a few US cities has caused panic among ISPs. Why wouldn’t they scramble to find ways to compete with Google when the best speeds they offer are about ten times slower than what Google wants to offer and for pretty much the same price?

It’s only natural to see ISPs, that have become used over the years with running the land as if they’re some kind of kings of the areas, telling people just how slow their Internet connection should be, throttling speeds, and requesting money as if they were giving people diamonds, not plastic beads, running around from corner to corner like headless chickens.

Google is expanding at an extremely slow pace, but at the very least the service it offers is slowly pulling up the lousy medium Internet speed in the United States. The fact that it uttered the intention to reach 35 cities, not states, mind you, has sent the likes of Comcast, Verizon and AT&T into a frenzy. Some have tried to come up with better offers, both in terms of Internet speed and in terms of costs, but only for customers in the cities where Google was expanding in.

Others have scrambled to purchase other big names in order to “protect” their businesses. I am referring here to Comcast who desperately wants to purchase Time Warner Cable because of the Google-threat looming over the horizon. The fact that they’d become a huge corporation that could easily dictate what you can and cannot see online is not mentioned anywhere in Comcast’s pleas to be allowed to merge with TWC and it likely never will.

The fact that not long ago, when Comcast was purchasing yet another company, Time Warner Cable was listed as the big threat hasn’t gone unnoticed.

Google Fiber Wireless would have an even bigger impact

Now, if Google moves on with these new plans to deliver ultra-fast wireless Internet to people, this could finally bring some level of competition among ISPs. Google could simply install a poll in a neighborhood and deliver Internet to anyone within reach, without going to the trouble of rolling out miles and miles of fiber.

This would lower costs for both Google and the customers who choose to have access to its network. What’s more, it could give them easy access to people who are currently stuck with one lousy ISP or another, who can’t seem to find a proper alternative to choose from if they were to drop their current contract.

What’s more, other companies, such as Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, Time Warner Cable and so on could very well end up lowering prices too, while also hiking up the speeds, just as they’ve done in the few cities where Google Fiber is available.