The next revolution in home internet? Google rolls out "Gigabit"

http://fiber.google.com/about/?utm_s..._content=About

Google is entering the ISP/cable business.

They are now offering 1 GB upload/download speeds (which blows away anything currently offered to residential customers) for $120/month, which includes TV.

They are offering the same without TV for $70/month.

Perhaps even more surprising, they are offering a slower internet (5 MB download, 1 MB upload, similar to today's budget cable plans) for free, guaranteed for a minimum of 7 years. The only "catch" is that you have to pay a $300 one-time "construction" fee to get this.

The 1 GB speed is almost 1000 times faster than the slower DSL/cable speeds of today, and still 50-70 times faster than most fiber optic customers (such as Verizon FIOS) are getting.

Keep in mind that a lot of the additional speed will be wasted for most customers, as the speed of loading web pages depends upon a variety of factors, including your computer's processing speed and the website's speed. Still, 1 GB downloads would be really sweet. For example, would allow you to download a feature-length movie in just 6 seconds!

Unfortunately, this is only available right now in the Kansas City area.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dan Druff

http://fiber.google.com/about/?utm_s..._content=About

Google is entering the ISP/cable business.

They are now offering 1 GB upload/download speeds (which blows away anything currently offered to residential customers) for $120/month, which includes TV.

They are offering the same without TV for $70/month.

Perhaps even more surprising, they are offering a slower internet (5 MB download, 1 MB upload, similar to today's budget cable plans) for free, guaranteed for a minimum of 7 years. The only "catch" is that you have to pay a $300 one-time "construction" fee to get this.

The 1 GB speed is almost 1000 times faster than the slower DSL/cable speeds of today, and still 50-70 times faster than most fiber optic customers (such as Verizon FIOS) are getting.

Keep in mind that a lot of the additional speed will be wasted for most customers, as the speed of loading web pages depends upon a variety of factors, including your computer's processing speed and the website's speed. Still, 1 GB downloads would be really sweet. For example, would allow you to download a feature-length movie in just 6 seconds!

Unfortunately, this is only available right now in the Kansas City area.

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Wow, bye bye comcast, et al. One of our cable boxes is on the fritz, so we have gone through such a hassle to change it out, and got me thinking about how its the same technology from about 10 years ago. I can't wait to bypass cable.

Faster porn is a better bet than ocean front real estate.

This is *HUGE* news to me as I hate and loathe comcast with every fiber of my being. They are not the kind of company you want having a fucking monopoly on internet and cable like they have had recently. I am super excited to say the least.

BUMP

Almost 10 years later, this has mostly been a failure. "Gigabit" has been renamed to "Google Fiber", and has barely expanded. At the time of this February 2013 thread, it was available in Kansas City as a pilot program.

Today, it is available in small parts of 9 states, and only 3.1 million people. That means fewer than 1% of US households can choose to have it.



:fail