Google Fiber's Webpass Brings $60, Gigabit Wireless to Seattle Google Fiber's Webpass gigabit wireless service is coming to limited parts of Seattle. According to a company press release, Webpass will be offering gigabit wireless speeds for $60 a month -- with no usage caps, and no contracts. Granted the launch is relatively tiny: the service initially only being made available to a 40-story luxury condominium tower located above Pike Place Market in the heart of the city. Webpass says the company will use point-to-point wireless radios to tap into the building's existing Ethernet cabling infrastructure.

Seattle marks the 7th market that Webpass has brought their service to. And while this initial launch is small, the company is promising to bring the connectivity to 100 additional buildings in Seattle within the next year. "Launching a new city is always fun!" says Webpass founder Charles Barr of the launch. "I'm eager to demonstrate to the residents of 1521 Second Ave. the value of a Webpass connection." Webpass was acquired by Google Fiber just about a year ago. The company, first founded in 2003, also delivers gigabit connectivity to 20,000 business and residential customers in the San Francisco/Oakland, San Diego, Chicago, Boston, and Miami. Google Fiber's webpass acquisition was part of an overall shift at the company away from pure fiber deployments, and toward a more hybrid fiber and wireless approach. Webpass is only a part of this planned pivot, and given the large number of next-gen wireless trials currently being conducted at Google, it's fairly clear even the company itself isn't quite sure what its future disruption efforts may look like. Google Fiber's webpass acquisition was part of an overall shift at the company away from pure fiber deployments, and toward a more hybrid fiber and wireless approach. Webpass is only a part of this planned pivot, and given the large number of next-gen wireless trials currently being conducted at Google, it's fairly clear even the company itself isn't quite sure what its future disruption efforts may look like.







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Most recommended from 33 comments



tshirt

Premium Member

join:2004-07-11

Snohomish, WA 5 recommendations tshirt Premium Member I believe all the buildings in that area have fiber access but I guess they can demo an secondary source and $60 is probably less then you tip a dog walker to take fifi to the pet relief floor (it's an expensive building) rradina

join:2000-08-08

Chesterfield, MO 920.3 39.3

·Charter

3 recommendations rradina Member Using Building's Existing Ethernet Infrastructure If a building is delivering Ethernet outlets to residents, is there an endpoint device in the residence that handles some kind of authentication and encryption? If not, it seems like a great place for nefarious entities to intercept a lot of traffic.