Ask HN: Why Google or Amazon Didn't Create Free World WI-FI Yet?

3 points by dimablover ↗ HN

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Google actually has worked towards creating a better internet service provider (ISP) with Google Fiber. While the business did push other internet providers in the US to offer higher speeds, Google Fiber itself has stopped expanding to new areas. Its failures are illuminating as to why the major tech companies haven't entered the ISP space in a major way. 1) There are major regulatory challenges including purchasing licenses, getting right of ways, dealing with state regulatory bodies. 2) Being ISPs raise major concerns about these companies being monopolies and requires competing against companies that are very involved in politics. 3) ISPs don't have the same growth potential as software companies so the businesses aren't that attractive. 4) The skill sets required to run an ISP are very different from the ones that they currently use. It requires running street construction crews to lay/fix/replace the fiber, running installation crews to residences, running technical support and usually running advertising that's skewed towards direct mail advertising. All of these combine to make the ISP business unattractive to Google and Amazon and other traditional tech companies. That said, Google is still actually working on this with Project Loon. This is more in their wheelhouse since the main challenges are technical and I suspect that they'll partner with local ISPs who will provide the customer service and installation services.