Google in first steps to US quad play?
Reports suggest that the firm's mobile broadband build-out in Kansas may be the template for a challenge to the cablecos
Published: 6 November, 2011
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There have been plenty of rumors over the past few years that Google would seek to expand its web vision by becoming a mobile broadband operator in its own right, and it has made significant investments in fiber and wireless networks. The latest report centers on a mobile internet service it has launched in Kansas, which could be a blueprint for taking on the cablecos with wireless quad play offerings.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Google is planning to add VoIP and video services to the high speed internet offering it is rolling out next year in the two Kansas Cities (Kansas and Missouri). Sources told the newspaper that the search giant has hired former cable TV executive Jeremy Stern to run the project, and that it will be a testing ground for different service bundles, tariffs and content partnerships, with a view to being replicated on a far wider scale. The WSJ says that meetings have been held with potential partners such as Walt Disney, Time Warner and Discovery Communications.
That would give the area's primary TV providers - Time Warner Cable and DirecTV - some sleepless nights, especially at a time when the US cablecos are trying to add mobile broadband to their existing services. However, in February, when Google announced the mobile broadband network plan, it insisted it did not have designs on a national system. But with its huge brand recognition and readymade presence in huge numbers of homes via the PC and now the phone, expansion into a quad play would be logical. One idea under discussion, the report says, is "expanding its YouTube line-up of channels by licensing a full complement of cable channels for paying customers."
Google has been trying to turn YouTube into a full TV platform with professional content and this would go further, making it a 'virtual' cable service which could also take Google TV into a new dimension. The recent upgrade of Google TV featured better integration with YouTube and Android apps.
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