According to a report on Wired News, Google, which has launched a flurry of new products since going public last year, will join the ranks of AOL, Yahoo, Microsoft and Earthlink, among others, as an ISP.
Google, which recently launched Google Checkout — an online payment service — only after denying widespread media reports of its intent to greenlight the venture, denied the ISP report from Wired News.
"Google has no current plans to be an ISP outside of our pilot Wi-Fi projects in Mountain View, Calif. and San Francisco," a Google spokesman, who declined to be identified, said. "Our IPv6 allocation simply reflects planning for the day in the future when the services we currently provide via IPv4 will need to be accessible via IPv6."
IPv6 is an Internet protocol designed to solve the shortcomings of IPv4, which will eventually run out of its 4 billion IP address combinations. IPv6 will offer “340 trillion, trillion, trillion” addresses.
Google sought and was granted a large block of IPv6 addresses last year by the American Registry of Internet Numbers (ARIN). The company also has purchased unlit optical cable — known as dark fiber — which is a key building block in establishing data networks.
ARIN’s director of external affairs Richard Jimmerson confirmed that Google had met the criteria to become an ISP.
Google’s IPv6 acquisitions last year were equivalent to potential rivals Earthlink and SBC.
While many analysts and industry watchers appear convinced that Google will be an ISP sooner than later, Michael Gartenberg, resource director at Jupiter Research sees things differently.
“There are any number of interesting possibilities, but I don't think they'll be getting into the ISP business — certainly not in the traditional sense of the word," Gartenberg said.