What's Google's network plan?

Although most of the gab about Google focuses on a possible desktop slugfest with Microsoft, the real action may be on the WAN, where Google might be gearing up for a donnybrook with the incumbent service providers.

For more than a year, rumors have been circulating about Google's WAN intentions. According to Business 2.0,  Google has been shopping for "miles and miles" of dark fiber from wholesalers, such as New York's AboveNet, and it has also acquired fast-fiber links from carriers such as Cogent Communications and WilTel between several East Coast cities, including Atlanta, Miami and New York.

Google is even shopping for network expertise, as witnessed by an ad on its site for a strategic negotiator who can handle "identification, selection and negotiation of dark fiber contracts both in metropolitan areas and over long distances as part of development of a global backbone network; contracts and negotiation for managed metropolitan services and long-haul wavelength services to fulfill capacity and redundancy requirements in North America, Latin America, Asia, and Europe."

The company also is making moves into the wireless arena, bidding for Wi-Fi contracts in major cities such as San Francisco.

Connecting the dots, some Google-watchers are speculating the company wants to leverage its vast knowledge of user surfing habits with its fiber backbone to become an ISP that can offer a faster Internet experience than the traditional players. After all, if you were a company doing e-commerce, wouldn't you want your site hosted by, or running over, the fastest network?

But others doubt Google would want to barge into the already mature and less-than-lucrative ISP or Web-hosting markets.

Still, Google's deep pockets, Internet expertise and newly acquired fiber play into other, more interesting scenarios, which may change the way we use the Internet.

Perhaps Google is lining itself up to become a major player in the premium content-delivery game, as attested to by its recent unveiling of Google Video and Google Web Accelerator.

Or maybe its investment in the peer-to-peer Wi-Fi company FON, plus its bid to provide municipal Wi-Fi in San Francisco, means it's toying with the idea of becoming a wireless ISP. Strategically, this would be a defensive maneuver to prevent cable companies and RBOCs from monopolizing Web access.

Or it could be sticking to its current business model whereby more consumers on the Internet translate into more ad dollars for Google. If so, its goal is to ensure free (or nearly free) access to the entire realm of Web content, leaving expensive, premium access to the Verizons and Comcasts of the world.

First, the facts

Google has leased an estimated 311,000 square feet of space at 111 Eighth Ave., one of the largest carrier hotels in Manhattan, according to published reports.

The company also confirms it is buying up dark fiber, hiring network experts and making other net-centric investments, but it says it is only trying to build out its own internal infrastructure.