Guinea pigs
The massive metropolitan Wi-Fi infrastructure actually covers 12 square miles and serves between 16,000 and 19,000 users at a time, transporting almost 600GB of user data every day; twice as much as it did two years ago, despite an increased user count of just 27 per cent since then.
In fact, the network handles more data and users than any other comparable network in the world. This is not just because people are spending more time online, but also because more people are logging on via their mobile devices, with Google positing that some 4,000 of its unique daily users are accessing the network on their iPhones.
Google claims the network offers users download speeds of up to 1Mbps (roughly) and upload speeds ranging from between 144kbps to 986kbps, so, it is broadband, but only just, because by federal definition in the US, broadband has to be 768kbps, or faster.
Google also says it's working on a wireless network for the city of San Francisco, but currently there is no set date regarding when the service might be available, nor are there current plans to develop wireless networks in any other cities.
But even after three years of free Wi-Fi, some Mountain View residents are still expressing frustration that they can't seem to log on; either because they live in a Wi-Fi blind spot, or because their connection is blocked by pesky trees or, worse still, their home's walls. You can connect and maybe check out a few emails, but it's very slow by today's broadband standards, one Mountain View resident told me.
The network apparently works best when accessed outside, and as close to any of Mountain View's 500 light-pole-mounted nodes as possible. "Outside-in" Wi-Fi is generally more problematic, resulting in the aforementioned cripplingly slow speeds or no connection at all. But Google has said this could also be due to the low-level power of Wi-Fi connectors in many people's laptops. Still, even for people using desktops inside their homes, the service can be hit or miss.
