SAN FRANCISCO — Google is making a Wi-Fi router as part of its ambition to provide better Internet connections that make it easier for people to access its digital services and see more of its online advertising.
Pre-orders for the $199 wireless router, called OnHub, can be made beginning Tuesday at Google’s online store, and . The device will go on sale in stores in the U.S. and Canada in late August or early September.
The Mountain View, Calif., company is promising its wireless router will be sleeker, more reliable, more secure and easier to use than other alternatives made by the Arris Group, Netgear, Apple and other hardware specialists. Google teamed up with networking device maker TP-Link to build OnHub.
Google’s expansion into wireless routers might conjure up memories of how the company trespassed on Wi-Fi networks in homes and businesses around the world for more than two years beginning in 2008.
Google insisted it hadn’t broken any laws but paid $7 million in 2013 to settle allegations of illegal eavesdropping. Google is pledging not to use OnHub to monitor a user’s Internet activity.
