For a company that has ‘googles’ of money to spend on just about anything it chooses, Google (IMHO) is doing a pretty poor job of enhancing and developing global human interconnection.
“These converted booths are also intended to provide cell-phone charging, free domestic phone calls and a touch screen information hub about the city and transit directions.”
“Free”? – from Google “sun111” I doubt it! – I am sure they would subject users to watch an ad before providing a charge, call or direction info. In reality, these options could be relatively easy to install in any bank ATM – I am amazed no-one has done it yet!
In my mind, if your connectivity program involves major ‘on ground’ infrastructure, you immediately face start-up / deployment costs and ongoing fees and charges via regulatory extortion, coupled with multiple layered ‘human’ costs of maintenance, insurance, wages & the like. This continued cost makes it hard to lower user fees let alone provide for ‘free’.
Google’s high altitude balloon experiments for connection will succeed in nothing other than wasting a massive amount of Google dollars!
The SSG plan to deploy a global encompassing constellation of dedicated telecommunications nano-satellites is audacious by current standards and totally disruptive. The total cost of the SSG proposed network is massively cheaper than anything proposed and considerably more effective.
This is without doubt, the investment opportunity of a lifetime.