Google to beam high speed internet directly to homes

Google's parent company Alphabet Inc., plans to beam high-speed internet wirelessly directly to homes, without transporting it through fibre cables, using a technology that the tech firm says is also much cheaper.

Improvements in computer chips and more accurate targeting of wireless signals have made “point-to-point” wireless internet connections “cheaper than digging up your garden," Alphabet chairman Eric Schmidt said at the annual shareholder meeting in Wednesday. Alphabet belies that the technology can deliver internet connections at a speed of 1 gigabit per second, equivalent to the speeds on fibre network. Schmidt met with Alphabet Chief Executive Larry Page, Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat and others on Tuesday to discuss the technology.

Google Fiber has been testing wireless technology in Kansas City, and hopes to have a demonstration network operating there by next year. The company is testing other wireless technologies also that would require users to have special devices in their homes to receive the signals.

Schmidt also highlighted several technologies that Alphabet feels will be promising in coming years, including plant-based imitation meat, three-dimensionally printed buildings, virtual reality and artificial intelligence.

“The best way to predict the future is to invent it,” Schmidt said. “We start from that premise here at Alphabet.”