Google Plans For High-Speed Broadband Networks
Google announced its plans on Wednesday to develop experimental super high-speed broadband networks in an attempt to bring people up to speed with today’s Internet highway.
Google has gone head-to-head with large mobile corporations such as AT&T and Verizon Mobile over net neutrality. The goal is to get telephone companies to allow its customers to run any Web apps they want, but carriers do not want to lose control of networks they have invested time and money to build.
Google hopes the trial network will show how carriers can manage complex applications that eat up a lot of bandwidth without hurting performance.
The Internet titan plans to build the network for a small percentage of Americans, at first, to test its efficiency and capabilities. The plan will offer trial service at a “competitive price” to between 50,000 and 500,000 people, offering Web service that is up to 100 times faster than most broadband services today.
“We’re planning to build and test ultra high-speed broadband networks in a small number of trial locations across the United States,” Google product managers Minnie Ingersoll and James Kelly stated in a blog. “We’ll deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today with one gigabit per second.”
They said users of Google’s network would be able to choose between multiple service providers using an “open access network.”
“This is about Google wanting to make a case for net neutrality,” PRTM consultant Daniel Hays told Reuters. Google wants to “demonstrate these services can be provided profitably at satisfactory levels of performance.”
Google declined to give detailed descriptions of its network, but said it would run on fiber-optic lines to homes. The fiber-optic networks will run speeds of 1 gigabit per second. That would be between 50 and 300 times faster than DSL, cable and fiber-optic networks that most people connect to today. Most high-speed connections range from 3 megabits to 20 megabits per second.
The vision for Google is for users to be able to download a HI-DEF, full-length feature film in as little as five minutes, allow rural health clinics to send 3D medical images over the Internet, and let students connect with each other around the world while watching live video of a university lecture.
“Our goal is to trial new technologies and figure out what kinds of applications can be sent over these big pipes,” said to Richard Whitt, Google’s Washington-based counsel on telecommunications and media. He added that many “next-generation applications” are probably being held back right now due to slow Internet connections.
It is very unlikely that Google could afford to bring a nationwide super-speed Internet highway to the country, and Whitt said the company isn’t trying to compete with the dominating phone and cable companies that use broadband service. Google does hope the project will help create advanced broadband applications and network technologies, and also help find ways to bring fiber-optic connections to more Americans at lower costs.
Google invited communities around the country that wanted to take part in the high-speed trial to contact the company before March 26. The target communities would be announced later this year.
The Federal Communications Commission welcomed the move by Google. “Big broadband creates big opportunities,” FCC chairmen Julius Genachowski said in a statement. “This significant trial will provide an American testbed for the next generation of innovative, high-speed Internet apps, devices, and services.” The FCC plans to unveil its recommendations next month for affordable high-speed internet for all Americans.
President Barack Obama has pledged to also put broadband in every home in the United States. In a survey of 58 countries released last year by Boston-based Strategy Analytics, it was found that the United States ranked 20th in broadband connectivity. Most U.S. consumers get broadband speeds less than 5 megabits per second. According to the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, that’s far slower than countries like Japan and Korea, which receive connections of 63 Mbps and 49 Mbps respectively.
In previous attempts to become an Internet service provider, Google has had limited success. They partnered with EarthLink Inc in 2006 in an attempt to provide free wireless Internet to the city of San Francisco. The plan failed in 2007 due to financial issues.
Google’s traditional Internet search and advertising business is taking a back seat again while the company tries to sell the idea of high-speed broadband access for everyone. The Mountain View, California, company has already asked the government for permission to buy and sell electricity in the United States, and announced plans to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in “green” energy products.
Oppenheimer & Co analyst Timothy Horan said he believed that building a broadband network would cost Google between $1,000 and $2,000 per customer if it bought up unused fiber-optic lines already underneath many cities. A lot of the stuff is fairly inexpensive, he said, adding that communication companies, such as Level 3 Communications Inc, would have lines to sell to Google.
Google said it planned on building the network with its own money, instead of seeking financial help from the government’s $72 billion stimulus budget or other financial partners. The company said it is prepared to sell access directly to consumers at competitive prices, but would also consider letting Internet service providers or local governments sell their own services over the Google network.
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