14 DAY TRIAL // After getting the necessary approvals from Mountain View City Council, Google gets ahead with a rollout of a free wireless Net broadband service in its hometown. In the course of this summer, the company will begin constructing the wireless network that will offer the locals free access to Internet.
"Testers who volunteer to offer feedback for the Mountain View project will be able to sign up for Wi-Fi starting sometime this summer. The complete service will be widely available to the public later this year. The Mountain View network rollout is on track to be completed by (the end of) June," said Chris Sacca, head of special initiatives at Google.
Behind Google's initiative lies the necessity to gather experience regarding what it takes to get a Wi-Fi network up and running, as the company plans to expand such services in the Bay Area. The main target is San Francisco where Google and EarthLink won the bid to build a similar network on almost 80 square km.
In this matter, although the free Net access services of Mountain View will not have advertisements added, Google has not denied the possibility for adds to be an integer part of the wireless network's free services in San Francisco. Here, the Net provider EarthLink will charge users for a premium package with speeds from 1 to 3 mbps. Meanwhile, Google will offer free Internet services at speeds up to 300 kbps.