Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat (pictured) acknowledged Google Fiber is mulling wireless as much as cable for connecting up leading US cities.

Speaking following the company’s Q2 results, Porat was quizzed about whether the way ahead was capital intensive and fibre led, as indicated from its capex figures, or whether it was contemplating a rollout that also deployed wireless technology.

Alphabet wants to create “abundant” connectivity, while continuing “to push the frontier with tech innovation”, Porat answered. It is “exploring both fiber and wireless, and you may have seen our recent acquisition of Webpass”.

Google Fiber acquired Webpass, a wireless based internet service provider in San Francisco, a month ago. The fee was not disclosed. Webpass’ founder said the two firms could join forces on accelerating high-speed connections across the US. The firm uses point-to-point wireless technology.

Porat’s comments are further confirmation of where Google’s thinking is heading, and follows internal discussions last month, led by chairman Eric Schmidt, on using wireless as an alternative to fibre.

Q2 hits some high notes
Alphabet’s revenue in Q2 shot up 21 per cent to $21.5 billion. Net income was $4.88 billion, a growth of 24 per cent. The primary cause of a particularly strong quarter was strong demand for mobile search. The company also benefited from solid growth in desktop and tablet search as well as continued strength in YouTube and programmatic advertising.

Unsurprisingly, Google weighed in with $21.3 billion of Alphabet’s total revenue, a 21 per cent increase. The search giant generated operating income of $7 billion, up from $5.6 billion a year ago.

Its ‘Other Bets’ division only generated $185 million in revenue, a jump up from $74 million in the year ago period. Reported revenue was primarily driven by Nest, Fiber, and Verily.

Meanwhile losses from Other Bets is a hefty $859 million, up from $660 million. Quarterly capex for Other Bets was $280 million, up from $232 million a year ago, with the expenditure from mainly laying fibre in US cities for Fiber.