Google Goes Wireless in Race to Connect Africa

Google is upping the ante in the race to deliver Internet to the developing world. In the process, it is vying with Facebook, Microsoft and others to strike partnerships with local telecom companies to try to bring new populations and revenue online.

In a previously undisclosed move, Google has discussed plans to launch a wireless Internet service in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, as soon as this quarter. It would be operated and sold to customers by existing Internet service providers and wireless carriers rather than by Google. But it would rely on Google’s network of underground fiber-optic cables, which the company unveiled late last year, and new Wi-Fi equipment that would be installed across the metropolitan area, according to a person involved in the initiative.