Google Invests in Femtocell Firm Ubiquisys

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Google has invested in a British company that makes femtocell stations, technology for improving mobile phone coverage in homes and companies.

Femtocells, named after an order of size in physics smaller than "pico" or "nano," are cellular base stations for individual homes or offices. Mobile operators hope to sell them to customers who will install them and immediately enjoy better coverage. Weak signals indoors, where most high-speed data services are used, have stunted the growth of those lucrative offerings, according to industry analysts.

Google invested in Ubiquisys to help people use the Internet wherever they are, with the best possible experience, spokesman David-John Collins said.

Google Invests in Femtocell Firm Ubiquisys [techworld.com]

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Probably linked to their bid in the 700 MHz wireless spectrum in the U.S.?!

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There's going to be a massive bandwidth crunch in the coming 2-4 years, one which will leave telco's and broadband service providers unable to finance the necessary infrastructure buildout to deal with consumers' increasing use of online video, audio, etc.

Google is smart to see this and plant seeds now that will protect their revenue stream from having to be shared with the SP's who need a share of online ad $$ to fund infrastructure.