Google to trial ultra high-speed broadband networks
Google announced plans to build experimental ultra high-speed
broadband networks that would deliver Internet speeds 100 times faster
than those of today to up to half a million Americans.
The Web search and advertising giant said the envisioned one gigabit
per second speeds would allow to stream 3-D medical imaging over the Web
or download a high-definition, full-length movie in less than five
minutes.
Google’s project complements US President Barack Obama’s pledge to
bring broadband to every US home as part of the Federal Communications
Commission’s National Broadband Plan.
Google product managers Minnie Ingersoll and James Kelly said the
Mountain View, California-based company was planning to “build and test
ultra high-speed broadband networks in a small number of trial
locations” in the United States.
“We’ll deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what
most Americans have access to today with one gigabit per second,
fiber-to-the-home connections,” they said in a blog post.
Google said it planned to offer service to at least 50,000 and
potentially up to 500,000 people. “Our goal is to experiment with new
ways to help make broadband Internet access better, faster and more
widely available,” Richard Whitt, Google’s Washington-based telecom and
media counsel, said in a blog post.
“We think that ultra high-speed bandwidth will lead to many new
innovations — including streaming high-definition video content, remote
data storage, distance learning, real-time multimedia collaboration and
others that we simply can’t imagine yet.”
Google was not looking to compete with the telephone and cable
television companies that are the current Internet Service Providers
(ISPs), Whitt told AFP. Rather, Google planned to offer a “paid service
to customers at a competitive price,” he said, but would focus on
“underserved” communities or those that “have no service whatsoever.”
“It’s not intended to supplant (ISPs),” Whitt said. “It’s Google
thinking that we need to step back and look at the broadband space and
see if there’s anything we can do to make for better customer
experience.
“We in the US are still lagging behind the rest of the world,” he
added, noting that some countries have 100 megabit per second home
connections.
Whitt said there was no set date for having the service up and
running. “If we can do it before 2011, great, but no timelines really,”
he said.
Google invited communities around the country that wanted to take
part in the high-speed broadband trial to make their interest known by
March 26 and said the target communities would be announced later this
year.
FCC chairman Julius Genachowski welcomed the Google initiative,
saying “this significant trial will provide an American testbed for the
next generation of innovative, high-speed Internet apps, devices and
services.”
NEW YORK, AFP |