eWeek: Google and Its Continuing Dark Fiber Mystery
The market is still guessing about Google’s continued purchases of “dark fiber” and what that will mean to the Internet. Yet another explanation was floated at a recent IT conference: IPv6, the next-generation Internet standard.
During a debate on the adoption of Internet Protocol Version 6 at the Burton Group’s annual Catalyst conference in San Francisco, Alex Lightman, CEO of IP telephony vendor Innofone.com, offered a new reason for Google’s expenditures on dark fiber.
His observation came during a dialogue on Internet addressing and the lack of support by service providers for IPv6. He is worried that the United States is focused on the present and is not addressing future needs.
According to Lightman, some service providers are preparing for IPv6. He ran down a list of companies with “slash 20” addresses.
“You know who else has a big pot of slash 20? Google,” Lightman said. “Yahoo does too. It’s not that service providers aren’t doing it—it’s the savvy service providers, with the high multiples and visionary management, that are getting ready to go into it.
“This is why Google bought mobile dark fiber. It’s to go out and go: ‘All these bozos in America aren’t rolling out IPv6, so we’ll do it if they aren’t going to,’” he said. [Read.More]