We’ve known for a while now that Google has been toying around with becoming a wireless service provider and a new acquisition spotted by GeekWire
gives us some more evidence that the company is looking to get into
this market in a big way. Apparently, Google recently acquired Alpental,
a small startup that was founded by two former Clearwire engineers
named Pete Gelbman and Mike Hart. The company was never exactly well
known outside of tech circles but GeekWire says that before it got
scooped up by Google, it “was developing technologies related to 5G, the
next generation wireless network” that “could have applications in
connecting fiber to the home and… Google’s municipal wi-fi offerings.”
Earlier
this year, we learned that Google has reportedly had talks with both
Verizon and Sprint to buy access to their wireless networks that it will
then sell to consumers as a wholesale provider. Additionally, a report
from The Information speculated that this would only be part of
Google’s plan to get into wireless and that the company would rely
primarily on using Wi-Fi calling made through Google Fiber Wi-Fi hotspots as its primary method of transmitting calls.
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