Room for improvement
Of course, those determined enough not to pay for cable broadband - or the newly announced Clearwire WiMAX service in Silicon Valley - could just buy a Wi-Fi router for approx. $100, to better connect to the nearest Wi-Fi radio, even through walls and over longer distances. Or you could attempt my tried and tested method of holding your laptop over your head and hopping around frantically on one leg.
The good news for my fellow Mountain View residents and me is that Google does plan to extend its Wi-Fi coverage and increase the network's capacity in order to meet the recent jump in demand for bandwidth.
To this end, Google has apparently set aside thousands of dollars and has also set up a phone number where users can call and have a moan, or report any problems with their connection. Be warned though, because the Google operator is actually nothing more than a piece of Google Voice software, programmed to transcribe the ranty reports into text for Google employees to read later on.
Despite the network's flakiness and bouts of slow speed, I really do have to praise Google for making the effort. For instance, even simply renting Mountain View's utility poles so Google can place nodes on them costs the company a whopping $18,000 a year ($36 per node, per year), and having any kind of free wireless broadband is something of a luxury in a world where many people have no Internet connection available at all.
Still, Google, I can't help but feel that if a company of your size and magnitude is going to provide free Wi-Fi to the residents of its home town - where most of its employees reside - it really should be absolutely amazing and not just Goooog enough.
