Leaked documents suggest that the Google is planning to offer Wi-Fi equipment and software at discounted prices to small and medium scale enterprises.
The Information [paywalled]reports, citing a source briefed on this Google project and a confidential document, this initiative is to hit the US as early as this summer, with a similar release timeframe for the other countries.
The steep discounts will be offered to all types of small businesses including restaurants, doctors’ offices, gyms, and more. The commercial–grade Wi-Fi equipment will be accompanied by web-based software for businesses that lets them manage the equipment from anywhere. There isn’t any specific information about the pricing revealed still.
The Wi-Fi equipment will be using a technology called Hotspot 2.0 which was developed by the company’s Google Access Unit. It enables connection to the Wi-Fi network immediately upon sign-in.
Users will have to sign-in with their Google account in order to use it so that the business can gather more about their customers’ habits. Rumor has it that the companies would be given access to some of the information that Google gathers. However, Google is yet to comment on these reports.
The new initiative comes as a part of Google’s mission to offer free easy internet access to everyone in the world. The discounted Wi-Fi will give businesses an opportunity to better serve customers at a cheap price.
This is not the first time as Google has already ventured into such small business favoring missions by offering desktop stations and Chromebooks to small businesses at discounted rates in 2011.
