YOU ARE AT:WirelessGoogle launches 1 Gigabit per second fiber network

Google launches 1 Gigabit per second fiber network

Google Fiber connected its first set of homes yesterday in the Hanover Heights section of Kansas City. The ultra high-speed network claims that it offers speeds of up to 1 Gigabit per second. So far there are no reports that those speeds have actually been achieved, but Hanover Heights resident Mike Demarais attracted a lot of attention yesterday with his twitter post touting the new service; he said he was getting more than 600 Mbps with an Ethernet cable, and 200 Mbps on Wi-Fi. Currently, most Americans have Internet speeds that are well below 50 Mbps.

Google plans to continue rolling out the service to other neighborhoods, but so far all the announced locations are in Kansas and Missouri. That’s good news for cable companies and wireless carriers who are hard at work promoting their own high-speed Internet services around the country. AT&T expects its U-Verse (bundled phone, Internet and cable service) product to be one of its fastest-growing businesses in the coming years. Verizon Wireless has partnered with several cable companies to cross-market services, meaning that Verizon can sell Internet and cable service combined with wireless service in areas served by both Verizon and one of its cable partners.

Disruption from Google is nothing new for wireless carriers, as evidenced this week by the highly successful launch of the no-contract Nexus 4 smartphone. Google started selling its latest smartphone on its website yesterday, and the most popular 8GB model has already sold out.

Google Fiber is of course a threat that comes from a very different direction, and given the limited reach of the rollout so far, it appears that it will be a while before Google Fiber is a nationwide phenomenon.

Google’s service costs customers $70/month, or $120/month if they want to include Fiber TV. It also comes with a terabyte of network storage. Yesterday Google shared a video of one of the first installations on YouTube (below). YouTube, owned by Google, is of course one of the major reasons the company wants to get into the ISP business. The faster you can download videos, the more ads you can watch. And one of the best ways to ensure primacy of your content is to own the pipes that deliver it.

ABOUT AUTHOR

Martha DeGrasse
Martha DeGrassehttp://www.nbreports.com
Martha DeGrasse is the publisher of Network Builder Reports (nbreports.com). At RCR, Martha authored more than 20 in-depth feature reports and more than 2,400 news articles. She also created the Mobile Minute and the 5 Things to Know Today series. Prior to joining RCR Wireless News, Martha produced business and technology news for CNN and Dow Jones in New York and managed the online editorial group at Hoover’s Online before taking a number of years off to be at home when her children were young. Martha is the board president of Austin's Trinity Center and is a member of the Women's Wireless Leadership Forum.