Google quietly acquires Alpental Technologies, a start-up led by former Clearwire researchers

Google, as noticed by GeekWire, has just acquired the networking start-up Alpental Technologies. The start-up is relatively unknown and never received too much press attention. Alpental was founded by former Clearwire executives, Pete Gelbman and Mike Hart. The former worked at Clearwire for seven years as a founding member of the company’s CTO group. He also oversaw the company’s systems engineering, intellectual property, and corporate research.

Hart was a principal systems architect at Clearwire and, like Gelbman, was a member of the CTO’s research and development team. He also was responsible for the wireless communications technologies that helped lower the cost of the company’s broadband network.

Details of the acquisition are sparse at this point. It’s unclear how much Google shelled out for Alpental. The company had raised $850,000 in funding. In a statement, a Google spokesperson had the following to say:

“I can confirm that we’re excited to welcome the Alpental team to Google, and that they joined a few weeks back, but we don’t have any other details to share.”

According to GeekWire, Alpental was working on developing technology pertaining to 5G, the next step in mobile networking from 4G. Google vice president and former Atheros Communications CEO Craig Barratt led the acquisition.

Google, most likely, can use the talent and technology obtained in the acquisition for its Fiber service and upcoming satellite-based networking.