Google's always tiptoed around directly providing internet access to consumers with things like
free airport WiFi and the
free WiFi network it runs in Mountain View, but today the company announced that it's getting in the game for real with the launch of a fiber-based ISP service that'll offer 1Gbps speeds at "competitive prices" to select markets. The idea is to provide next-gen access to between 50,000 and 500,000 people and basically see what happens -- and, as you'd expect, the new network will be a poster child for Google's pro-net-neutrality efforts. Sounds good to us, but we've all got a ways to go before Eric Schmidt comes over with the lightpipe -- Google's just now asking for "interested communities" to apply, and launch markets will be announced later this year. Video after the break.
P.S.- Remember when Google
bought all that fiber back in like 2005 and sparked all those rumors of a "GoogleNet"? It's probably unrelated, but at least there's a name to kick around.
[Thanks, Kevin]
posted February 10th 2010 11:54AM
Google continues their path for World Domination
Fios what?
This would give ultimate bragging rights...
Best news of 2010
I find myself becoming more and more wary of Google with each new release. I for one, will not touch this service even if they tried to offer it to me for free. Not because I don't think it's a cool offering, but because my gut instinct tells me I should be cautious about submitting to the ecosystem of a company with Google's mission statement. No thanks, I'll stick with my current broadband carrier.
@kceezy As stated in my earlier post, I completely sympathize with this sediment.
What I'm hoping is that if they do come out with this, it will pressure the other ISPs to start offering better price/performance ratios. I currently pay $70/month for 10Mb, which is just flat out robbery. I would like to either pay $70/month for 100Mb, or pay more like $10/month for 10Mb.
Hopefully if Google can actually do what they want to do, it'll force that kind of change.
Google Products/Services...
3D Warehouse
Ad Manager
AdWords
AdSense
Google Alerts
Google Analytics
Google Answers
Google Questions and Answers
Google App Engine
Google Apps
Google Audio Indexing
Google Base
Blogger (service)
Google Books
Google Books Library Project
Google Bookmarks
Google Browser Sync
Google Calendar
Google Chart API
Google Checkout
Google Chrome
Chromium (web browser)
Google Web Toolkit
Google Code
Google Code Search
Coverage details of Google Maps
Google Current
Google Dashboard
Google Desktop
Google Quick Search Box
Google Dictionary
Google Docs
Google Earth
Google Finance
Google Groups
Google Health
Google Images
Google Labs
Google Maps
Google Mars
Google Moon
Google News
Google Profile
Google Street View
Google Talk
Google Wave
Google Wifi
Youtube
That's the short list....SkyNet was launched a long time ago...
@Plazmic Flame
YES god forbid Google actually succeeds at the game of capitalism we so proudly trumpet in this country all the while trying not to harm the enviornment and protect our civil rights, providing dozens of free services, pushing innovation, creating formidable competition, advancing adaptation of new technologies and creating new jobs for the low cost of us clicking on some advertisements online, not mostly on the backs of people making slave wages in third world countries.
Oh noes! We must stop them! SKYNET. /sarcasm
@Plazmic Flame You missed the big one. Google A.I.
"We have some people at Google (who) are really trying to build artificial intelligence and to do it on a large scale," Page said to a packed Hilton ballroom of scientists. "It's not as far off as people think." -Larry Page, 2007.
Am I the only one that is in a state of elevated euphoria after hearing this? I am surprised the lack of buzz over this. I mean, there have been more posts on this website and Gizmodo over Google Buzz than this! Or am I part of the minority?
@foxh8er This is Engadget. If it were an apple announcement it would be Breaking News and they would be ALL OVER IT.
My name is John Connor, and I will lead all of you against Google.
There is no fate, but what we maek.
Just to throw this out there, they are saying its Gbps. Not GBps, so they are saying its gigabit per second not gigabyte per second. the isp's now do the same b.s. with their advertising, i found out while doing some research on optimum ultra.
@thelonerangers
nothing has changed for the last what 30 years from 300 baud which is 300 bits to todays 1.5mbits or higher services. it has always been in bits per second.
@thelonerangers so? 1 Gbps = 119.2 MBps sick speeds which I'm sure will be like a super car payment a month
i will move to the market they select
I understand but some people above are refering to GB which is bytes not bits. Different size no? A bit is smaller than a byte if I am thinking correct. When I was researching high speed broadband in my area people were saying the 100 Mbps actually figured to 12 MBps which is still pretty impressive. But some friends of mine made the same mistake as me assuming that the lower case "b" is bytes. If I am wrong please explain to me the proper explanation or link to where I can read up for myself. Thanks in advance.
Well I guess I'm screwed. ATT headquarters in the backyard probably killed my chances of my city applying.
google wouldnt need to acquire facebook anymore to get a plethora of information about internet users ... we would be giving it to them.
but even more problematic is ... i'll need alot more hard drives.
This is old news, Google has been offering FTTH through Google TiSP since 2007.
http://www.google.com/tisp
@NodNarb012
Too slow only 8Mb/sec. ;)
Does anyone know if Google has any particular cities already in mind?
Come on, go Des Moines!
Hey, Google, you wanna know a great testing market? Boise, Idaho. We've got Micron and rich people, and Qwest really needs some competition D=
I swear I will be the firs to jump on it. Fios was not available or will not be available in my area because of AT&T
Anyone else notice Google's trademark infringement on Engadget? (i know little "g" vs big "G" but still...)
Perhaps Engadget will get a nice licensing deal out of this. ;)
Lol Looks like OnLive got some back up here.
Portland, Oregon has it in the bag! Coincidentally, if any of you are in Portland join the facebook group that has been set up. I want to link to it, but I don't because then I would really be better than the damn spammers. So if you're in Portland and care, look it up.
Ok I typed a normal post without ANY kind of word or combination of letters that could be even remotely offensive and I get the 'an email has been sent' rejection message.
So you know what engadget? Deleting my posts AND not letting me post normal posts is a bit too much, you can shove your idiotic crap where the sun don't shine, bye.
Enjoy your glorious heavily censored chinese-style people's liberty.
I want Google's babys.
Wub you.
Will this ever come to the land of the Beavers?
If the government were to monitor your phone calls, social networking status, text messages, emails, movements/GPS use, work, and more, the country would go bats*** insane.
If Google does it, we sign up for the beta invite.
Actually, with the recent partnership of Google and the NSA, maybe this is not such a good deal after all. IT'S A TRAP!!!
Im all for it
Chicago needs this. Every ISP in my neighborhood sucks (comcast and att) and is bellow 15mpbs.
oh god, really google, really? I think eventually there will be a time when google fails, just like a lot of tech companies, because they tried to put their feet into too many doors that they just dont know about
i tried to connect to the google wifi several times and was never successful, it showed up, i tried to link and it would dissapear
what communities, it better be in silicon valley, were in the middle of the whole shebang and i wouldnt expect less from my google neighbors, so please make it local, im tired of this bull ATT crap we have at work, how are we supposed to live on close to dial up speeds? what kind of ISP sells crappy internet still measured in kbps? i have to do all my uploading/downloading from my nice cushy 20mpbs at home
When I read about their fiber-based internet, this is all I can think about. http://www.google.com/tisp/
i think what we need to concentrate on is putting systems inlace that have alot of room for growth both in its own infrastructure and at a user level.
If everyone in the world had this amount of bandwidth and theres no good reason why we shouldn't i mean the technology is there and its not that expensive (relatively speaking) to implement.
If all business models worked on this principle and not the one that tries to milk consumers for all that they are worth by providing small incremental upgrades then humanity could progress at insane speeds.
capitalism stunts progress.....its outdated and sad.
peace
Brian