Google's Major Investments Hint Search Giant Might Become ISP

BY BRIAN DEAGON

INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

Posted 7/7/2006

One day you might be able to tell your phone or cable company to cancel all services because you have a new provider — Google. (GOOG)

Some observers are looking at Google's investments and the fast-changing market and saying they add up to a company that could become a provider of Internet services, including phone.

Doing so would let Google supplement its ad-based search revenue business by also collecting user fees for those services, potentially creating a huge new round of growth for the Internet star.

"It's now totally accurate to say Google could become a phone company," said Ken Rutkowski, a technology consultant who also broadcasts his KenRadio tech show over the Internet.

Google says little about its plans. But here are some of items considered by Rutkowski and others:

• Google has over recent years quietly purchased enough dark, or unused, fiber-optic cable — used to provide high-end broadband — to cover the U.S.

• It's teamed with EarthLink (ELNK) to provide Wi-Fi wireless high-speed Internet services in San Francisco and nearby Mountain View, Calif., where Google is based.

• Last July, it bought a stake in Current Communications, which aims to deliver broadband over electrical power lines.

• In February, it bought a stake in Fon, a firm with technology that Fon says expands Wi-Fi's reach.

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BROADBAND over POWER LINES: new 200 Mbps Technology !!!: Google, GS, SENSUS,TXU, GE, EarthLink put $230M in Current Communications ~ 10 Mbps Symmetrical speed Broadband over Power Lines Internet service !!!