Google is expanding its tests on the way to blanketing the US in super-fast wireless
The company has been testing a new wireless transmission technology using the 3.5 GHz band in Kansas City, but the heavily redacted FCC filing suggests it wants to dramatically expand to testing "experimental transmitters" at up to 24 US locations, including Provo, Utah, Omaha, Nebraska, and Boulder, Colorado for a period of 24 months. Google is requesting authorization to operate between 3.4 and 3.8 GHz band.
Google Fiber's original plan involved running high bandwidth fiber optic cable directly to each home its network would serve. That process has so far proved to be expensive and slow-moving.
However, since it announced the acquisition of point-to-point wireless internet company Webpass earlier this summer, the Fiber team has started turning more of its attention to a using a new approach that will pair existing fiber its own wireless technology.
The company has even delayed its Fiber roll-out plans in two Silicon Valley cities as it looks for cheaper, wireless alternatives, according to the San Jose Mercury News.
Although several of the cities Google wants to test are already Fiber cities, the tests will be non-commercial for now. All the end-user-devices used for testing will be in the hands of Google employees, contractors, and 'trusted testers' selected by Google on a volunteer basis without payment."