With an unlimited network bandwidth what would you build?

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With an unlimited network bandwidth what would you build?

Asked at Google over a year ago

1.8k views

Asked at

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csanjay · Answer 1 · 2020-08-25T07:08:54+0000

Clarify

What is meant by unlimited bandwidth, unlimited latency on both provider and subscriber? Both
Who are we : Google
Goal: Revenue
Timeline : 2-3 years
market : Worldwide

What is possible with this new tech

Provider side

Build more powerful data-intensive solutions/ Apps
Centralize computing and storage as a network is unlimited

Consumer side

End-user devices can render data-intensive Apps
Run more real-time experience

Solutions

Communication/ Social - Phone /laptop now render real-life full 3D communication
Virtual reality - A real-life assistance always around you to talk to [Alexa is a real 3D woman]
Automobile industry - Self-driving car [ no latency issues for ML algorthms]
Cloud computing - Now can provide ML insights for different industries
Robotics - Intelligence robots centrally commanded

Evaluation Criteria : Relevance to goal, align with Google, Improve CX, possible in the next 2 years

Description of solution

With unlimited bandwidth google can build real-time 3d experience around all its offering [Maps, Android Phones, Chromebooks]. But most importantly google can now launch a messager that renders real life 3d communication within your professional or social network. This could help google leapfrog in $500B social media market from outdated updates to real time / real life communication.

Tradeoffs

- Requires phones hardware and apps to evolue to leverage all the bandwidth and deliver 3D experience

- Privacy issues if everything can be transmitted in real time

Roman Aleksandrenko · Answer 2 · 2020-06-24T00:00:00+0000

Here's my thoughts on answering this Google product strategy question.

Approach:

Clarify
Reiterate Google's mission
Highlight global issues that Google is well-positioned to solve with unlimited bandwidth
Prioritize
Brainstorm the solutions
Compare and prioritize the solutions

Clarify

We assume that "unlimited bandwidth" means:

On every device on earth we have unlimited Mbps, with no latency or range limitations - Correct
Should we build something as part of Google or build something in general? - Google
Google is a huge corporation with multiple product areas, does Google have the main reason/goal to build something leveraging unlimited bandwidth capabilities? - Yes, we want to get more Google product users

Mission alignment check

Unlimited bandwidth is a great success catalyst for most existing Google products. Given the most recent span on Google's mission "To help people get things done", there are many things that are very hard to do without the technology especially in the emerging markets.

Global issues

Most of the global issues can be considered in developing countries with the lowest Internet Bandwidth like countries in: Latin & Central America, Africa, India etc.

We have the following main problems:

Mass hunger
Affordable healthcare
Quality education

There are initiatives from other companies that help to solve these problems. Also we know that video would become a much more popular data format in the "unlimited bandwidth" reality. Given Google existing products like YouTube, Google Meet, Google Calendar and Android, Google is well-positioned to tackle education problem.

Solutions for Quality education:

Here are a few reasons besides bandwidth why it's hard to have universal high quality education:

- Not enough teachers

- Not enough content

- Not enough schools

If we solve the first problem, others won't be as important anymore.

Here are a few solutions:

1. Crowdsource local teachers to create video content for K-12 & leverage Google calendar for scheduling mid-term exams (via YouTube live)

2. Open source Google Assist to expand live translation for illiterate adults

3. Launch a new version of Google Home_Edu with the projector that is more accessible/cheap than Android or any other laptop

Prioritization:

Solution ideas	New users potential	Efforts	Risk	Strategy
1	H	H	M	Not many teachers are needed for the content creation as long as they represent the education needs of their location. Distributing structured content should be ok, given the popularity of Android.
2	M	L	H	It will be up to the local dev community, would need monitoring and quality control and we assume that there are more K-12 kids than illiterate adults.
3	L	M	M	Needs hardware, so there will be cost associated with that and the willingness to pay is not high (poverty)

We'd go with the solution#1 as it has higher impact (in terms of TAM) and slightly lower risk.

Chetan Channa · Answer 3 · 2021-08-06T04:29:45+0000

Clarify

Unlimited Bandwith means that every device on earth can actually connect to internet without any latency and without any limitation on bandwidth ? - [Interviewer]: Yes
Is it fair to assume that goal of google with such a product is to get more users on Google Product ? [Interviewer]: Yes
Also, I will assume that Google wants to stick to it's mission and not build something which doesn't align to it;s vision? [Interviewer]: Yes
I am going to keep price factors out of this & assume that such a network/badwidth is not beyond the means of most people. [Interviewer]: Ok
I am only going to think about new product and not think how google can improve existing products.[Interviewer]: Ok

Trends

Currently, because of cloud, computing power is not a limitation. Concepts like edge computing are coming into picture because of latency issues, which would become immaterial. This effectively means. the clouds computing prowess can also be used more efficiently.
Lots of data/even more can be generated an send across networks which means AI/ML can be leveraged more effevtively.
The number of wearables, sensors, mobiles penetration, IOT devices grow very quickly.

Also Bandwidth = # of devices on network * Data being sent over network by each device * frequency of Data

Opportunity Identification Framework

On the basis of above, I believe, by having such a network, it would be possible to solve more 'real-time' use cases (more data & Frequency of Data) via personal devices like mobile phones(# of devices over network).

While there are other major world problems, I believe the best problem to go after is personal health since it meets all the criterias above.

The Product

I would build a wearable product, with lots of sensors which would send real-time data to central goolge servers. Also, I would also add a 24X7 camera to the device, an audio sensor which can work like a stethoscope. The device should be capturing relevant data so as any doctor can create a 'VR' model of any person on earth.

By having such a product

We are leveraging the tech available to us for case which can't be solved right now.
Solving a basic problem of providing accessible health-care to the less privileged.
Capturing lots of data which then can be used for AI/ML learning systems to become more intelligent and make our life easier.
Generating research data for medical fraternity to solve for yet unsolved diseases
Respond to emergency situations sooner.

Challenges & Risk

Data Privacy Concerns - These are there but apple health kit already exists. The fears can be allayed by telling the advantages as well as giving user control of what they share.
Access & Cost of such a device - There can be tie-ups with governments and the project can be started with the most vulnerable. Once we reach scale costs will decrease.
Form Factor of Device - Adding too many sensors will actually bloat the device form factor. So the answer could actually be multiple devices. Battery needs to be solid too.