MOUNTAIN VIEW (dpa-AFX) - Google Inc. (GOOG) is working on building up wireless networks in sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, connecting more than one billion people to the Internet, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The company is planning to team up with local communications companies and equipment providers to develop the wireless networks outside major cities where wired Internet connections are unavailable, the Journal reported citing people familiar with the strategy.
The company aims to use airwaves reserved for television broadcasts, but only if government regulators allowed it, the paper said citing these people.
The Internet search giant has begun talking to regulators in countries such as South Africa and Kenya about changing current rules to allow such networks to be built en masse, the report said.
Under the plan, Google has been working on building an ecosystem of new microprocessors and low-cost smartphones powered by its Android mobile operating system to connect to the wireless networks, the Journal said quoting these people.
According to the Journal, the company has worked on making special balloons or blimps, known as high-altitude platforms, to transmit signals to an area of hundreds of square miles, though such a network would involve frequencies other than the TV broadcast ones. The company is evaluating satellite and other technologies to provide broadband communications.
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