Google may not be able to sell businesses a broadband connection outside of its handful of fiber cities, but it could supply the final wireless link to millions of restaurants, gyms and doctors’ offices, according to a new report by The Information. According to The Information’s Amir Efrati, Google plans to sell Wi-Fi gear at steep discounts to businesses in exchange for managing their applications in its cloud and permission to extend wireless internet access to other Google customers. If the report is true, this could be part of a larger plan by Google to circumvent mobile carriers and use Wi-Fi to connect more of its customers to its services on the go. Key to strategy, according to Efrati, is the emerging technology Hotspot 2.0, which allows Wi-Fi networks to behave more like cellular networks.
Read the full story at Giga OM, or the original report at The Information (subscription required).