Google moves into ISP realm
Google's plan to offer 1Gb/s FTTH broadband connections comes with certain privacy concerns.
As reported over on Physorg.com, the announcement comes from product managers Minnie Ingersoll and James Kelly who state that Google is looking to "build and test ultra high-speed broadband networks in a small number of trial locations" offering 1Gb/s connections as standard.
The small-scale trial is looking to hook up at least 50,000 users, with up to 500,000 connections being on offer should initial trials go well. Sadly for anyone here in the UK, Google is only looking at trialling the service in the US for now.
The 1Gb/s connection speed is made possible by using fibre-optic cabling directly to the home - known, oddly enough, as Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) - coupled with Google's own massive consumption of bandwidth, making a few thousand home users browsing at 1Gb/s seem like a drop in the ocean.
Google's Richard Whitt believes that the ultra-high-speed connectivity will allow the company to "experiment with new ways to help make broadband Internet access batter, faster, and more widely available," along with allowing "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."
The service - to be offered at "a competitive price" to "underserved" communities - will come as manna from heaven for those looking for faster 'net connections, but should sound a warning bell in privacy enthusiasts: by using Google as your ISP, the notorious data warehousing company gets to see all the traffic that you every transmit on the Internet. Basically, if you were concerned at the privacy implications when Google launched its public DNS service this should be giving you the heebie-jeebies.
Sadly, there's no announcement on exactly when the trial network will go live - nor the lucky community or communities to enjoy the service - except a vague hope that it could be up and running "before 2011."
Would you sacrifice all of your data to Google in return for a 1Gb/s Internet connection, or do you value your privacy more than bandwidth? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
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Discuss in the forums ReplyThere are conducting trials with up to 500,000 people (multiple small scale sites) to test new fibre rollout strategies that they can then pass on to ISP's in order to give fast network rollout a kick up the arse. Also it doesn't help remind ISP's that if they didn't improve their network and keep it open then Google certainly has the pieces in place to move into the market.
and you have to vote for your town to do this and it is only availible in the us
125k bytes is now ulktra high speed broadband? Thought that was known as midband... or not even that... slowest broadband I know of is 2Gb/s....yes, indded, out by a factpor of 1000
Not enough sleep. :)
Oh yes. that really is quite fast :(
Fiber should be a 1-to-1 link right? So up and down should be the same.
Time for me to stop looking like an idiot hopefully.... Maybe its technically a 1-1 link but my fibre isn't, ive got a 20Mb down but a 2Mb up, maybe thats just the ISP but its not necessarily a 1-1.
Yup, definitely fibre, ill check, its either 2Mb up or 4Mb up, certianly not as fast as the down though.
Also the fiber link that i use on a regular basis is 1:1 and thats in the uk, and i get about 50mb both ways.
so just depends where you are and how its set up but im all for supporting the fast internet connection :)
can you batter the internet, does it taste nice with chips
These are their devious plans.
LMAO :D.
Most people seem to think that when Virgin Media say, 'It's fibre optic broadband!!!1', they're not talking **** - they are.
(Hopefully you really did know this, but any exposure to those lies is a very good thing. :))
pornlegally download contentSeems like the freedom of the internet is being used to imprison us.
Nuff said.
http://www.eset.co.uk/Compare/Competition
"Sure, one uses a giant Web crawler to index billions of pages, and the other uses a giant arsenal of automated nuclear super-weapons to extinguish the human race. But petty discrepancies aside, they're virtual twins."
LMAO :D:D
There are important advantages for municipalities to deploy a high-speed FTTH network. Municipalities like Grant and Mason counties in Washington decided to use Active Ethernet when they built their network several years ago. As a result they have seen an increase in the number of small businesses and home-based businesses, larger businesses establishing facilities in the area and increased local goverment efficiency.
There are plenty of players out there that could offer them good cost-effective solution like Calix, Telco Systems Occam and others.
I hope that the Google activity will in fact serve as lobbying activity in the 14 states which have limited or banned this activity by city government. Incumbent telephone companies are reluctant to invest in upgrading their networks, so it is only through competition that we can hope to achieve open access and improve the lives of every citizen.