google to build fibre networks

bealtine

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/think-big-with-gig-our-experimental.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FMKuf+%28Official+Google+Blog%29


Imagine sitting in a rural health clinic, streaming three-dimensional medical imaging over the web and discussing a unique condition with a specialist in New York. Or downloading a high-definition, full-length feature film in less than five minutes. Or collaborating with classmates around the world while watching live 3-D video of a university lecture. Universal, ultra high-speed Internet access will make all this and more possible. We've urged the FCC to look at new and creative ways to get there in its National Broadband Plan – and today we're announcing an experiment of our own.

We're planning to build and test ultra high-speed broadband networks in a small number of trial locations across the United States. We'll deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today with 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections. We plan to offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people.

Our goal is to experiment with new ways to help make Internet access better and faster for everyone. Here are some specific things that we have in mind:

* Next generation apps: We want to see what developers and users can do with ultra high-speeds, whether it's creating new bandwidth-intensive "killer apps" and services, or other uses we can't yet imagine.
* New deployment techniques: We'll test new ways to build fiber networks, and to help inform and support deployments elsewhere, we'll share key lessons learned with the world.
* Openness and choice: We'll operate an "open access" network, giving users the choice of multiple service providers. And consistent with our past advocacy, we'll manage our network in an open, non-discriminatory and transparent way.

Like our WiFi network in Mountain View, the purpose of this project is to experiment and learn. Network providers are making real progress to expand and improve high-speed Internet access, but there's still more to be done. We don't think we have all the answers – but through our trial, we hope to make a meaningful contribution to the shared goal of delivering faster and better Internet for everyone.

As a first step, today we're putting out a request for information (RFI) to help identify interested communities. We welcome responses from local government, as well as members of the public. If you'd like to respond, visit this page to learn more, or check out our video:



We'll collect responses until March 26, and will announce our target communities later this year. Stay tuned.

Sponge Bob

I think we should pick somewhere equally deserving in Ireland and go and march on Google HQ in Dublin and beg them to accept an application from poor old Ireland too.

Lots and LOTS of media , invitation to Ryan to show his face, the lot

bealtine wrote: »

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/think-big-with-gig-our-experimental.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FMKuf+%28Official+Google+Blog%29


Imagine sitting in a rural health clinic, streaming three-dimensional medical imaging over the web and discussing a unique condition with a specialist in New York. Or downloading a high-definition, full-length feature film in less than five minutes. Or collaborating with classmates around the world while watching live 3-D video of a university lecture. Universal, ultra high-speed Internet access will make all this and more possible. We've urged the FCC to look at new and creative ways to get there in its National Broadband Plan – and today we're announcing an experiment of our own.

We're planning to build and test ultra high-speed broadband networks in a small number of trial locations across the United States. We'll deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today with 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections. We plan to offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people.

Our goal is to experiment with new ways to help make Internet access better and faster for everyone. Here are some specific things that we have in mind:

* Next generation apps: We want to see what developers and users can do with ultra high-speeds, whether it's creating new bandwidth-intensive "killer apps" and services, or other uses we can't yet imagine.
* New deployment techniques: We'll test new ways to build fiber networks, and to help inform and support deployments elsewhere, we'll share key lessons learned with the world.
* Openness and choice: We'll operate an "open access" network, giving users the choice of multiple service providers. And consistent with our past advocacy, we'll manage our network in an open, non-discriminatory and transparent way.

Like our WiFi network in Mountain View, the purpose of this project is to experiment and learn. Network providers are making real progress to expand and improve high-speed Internet access, but there's still more to be done. We don't think we have all the answers – but through our trial, we hope to make a meaningful contribution to the shared goal of delivering faster and better Internet for everyone.

As a first step, today we're putting out a request for information (RFI) to help identify interested communities. We welcome responses from local government, as well as members of the public. If you'd like to respond, visit this page to learn more, or check out our video:



We'll collect responses until March 26, and will announce our target communities later this year. Stay tuned.

trekkypj

Hmmm...

I wonder if it would be worth giving them a shout... see if, at the very least, they would be interested in using our locality as a guinea pig for a future project?

paulm17781

Does no one care about the amount of data hoarding they'll start doing?

Don't get me wrong, I use Gmail and Google but all your internet traffic via a google network?

trekkypj

It is a concern, but what ISP doesn't collect such data anyhow? At least Google's network would hopefully be properly configured and secured.

Or have you all forgotten the Eircom Netopia router debacle where they gave customers boxes configured with insecure WEP keys based on the lyrics of a song?

Besides - Google seem to be aiming at the infrastructure side, not the service itself. I doubt they want to get into the ISP business themselves. They'll probably open the networks to all providers in exchange for a line rental fee.

As long as it's fast, open and secure, I'm in favour, broadly. If they did something similar in Ireland, they'd have to obey the law of the land on data protection, anyhow.

paulm17781

Wow people are naive. Google don't give things away for free because they want to make the world a better place, they do it so they can gather data. Having their own network will get them all the data on the users internet usage. It may be secure but you can be certain they will be profiting off of it.

bealtine

paulm17781 wrote: »

Wow people are naive. Google don't give things away for free because they want to make the world a better place, they do it so they can gather data. Having their own network will get them all the data on the users internet usage. It may be secure but you can be certain they will be profiting off of it.

Unlike all the rest of the infrastructure providers?

paulm17781

bealtine wrote: »

Unlike all the rest of the infrastructure providers?

Do they profit off personal details browsing habits etc? This is Google's business, they make money by knowing what you're doing (I agree I could phrase that better) where as the others have no interest either way in what you do, Google will store it for their gain.

bealtine

paulm17781 wrote: »

Do they profit off personal details browsing habits etc? This is Google's business, they make money by knowing what you're doing (I agree I could phrase that better) where as the others have no interest either way in what you do, Google will store it for their gain.

profit no but store yes.
With probable ACTA and recent EU decisions (commonly known as three strikes) all browsing activities are stored and can be used in any way an ISP see fit.

More to the point though Goggle's possible entry into the infrastructure market is a wakeup call to the ISPs that like to impose caps and restrictions on their customers (net neutrality), it will get put the cat among the pigeons so to speak. I for one would like fibre to my home regardless of who is logging my habits...

trekkypj

Of course Google will seek to make money on the deal. They're a corporation, goes with the territory.

Will they do anything existing ISPs don't do already? Doubt it. More sophisticated in their methods, perhaps, but, ultimately, certain data has to be retained under law anyhow for a certain period.

paulm17781

trekkypj wrote: »

Of course Google will seek to make money on the deal. They're a corporation, goes with the territory.

Google's main business is targeted advertising.

trekkypj wrote: »

Will they do anything existing ISPs don't do already? Doubt it. More sophisticated in their methods, perhaps, but, ultimately, certain data has to be retained under law anyhow for a certain period.

Yes. ISPs are effectively about providing a service. Google are about tracing your habits so they can target you with ads. I don't know what else they do with all that information but it's been highly profitable for them thus far.

yuloni

This post has been deleted.

watty

By the time you know how wrong you are, it's too late.
Google will make room 101 welcome.


In many areas I no longer have alternative to using Google. If I want to be designing & programming and other things also the organisers are using Google to provide their services.

trekkypj

The way I see it is this:

1. We need projects to provide employment in this country.

2. We also need a future-proof data network i.e. fibre to every home, uncontended and capable of being maintained so that we don't fall behind again.

If Google are willing to spend their money building this service, which we so badly need, if they are committed to making it open to other providers, and if they think they will make money on the deal, then I say let them.

It would employ many people and provide the means for people to sell services and goods online such as which cannot be done at present. I would love triple play services like Virgin Media's offering in the UK. Or even simply a fibre connection which would enable me to sell digital only products to the millions of Irish, European and international households.

Video on Demand, Voice over IP Telephony, Music, Books, Games, Video Conferencing services, online libraries, and who knows what else. Working from home, every person in the country able to take advantage of the speed to run a home office, to work freelance, to create wealth.

Imagine, if you were housebound, being able to have a consultation with your specialist over a videoconferencing link, while a separate screen shows the information about the medical issue, scans perhaps, all of which are available at the touch of a few buttons and then sent across the networks to where they're needed. No need for waiting rooms, rooting out files, spending money travelling to get results. It doesn't replace consultations, but when you just need to be given results, or provided with guidance on changing your lifestyle...

And I think we all appreciate the possibilities it brings for education...

But realistically, you need fibre to the home AND a strong wireless network for portable devices to create demand for these services. It's not a demand-based market - you have to create it by building the infrastructure and THEN creating products and services delivering what people can't do without. That is how it is done.

I'm a big cheerleader for volunteer-driven cooperatives to provide these services - but we need help from Google and from other IT giants to do this.
and from Government to cut the planning and regulatory red tape, provide tax incentives and seed funding, and finally direct qualified graduates to the proposed projects to get the networks built.

Frankly, if Google succeed where the Government has abjectly failed up to now, then fair play to them and if they use it to try and make money, fine by me. Just so long as I get the chance to use the network to do the same.

With some 450,000 people on dole queues, can we really afford to say no?

yuloni

This post has been deleted.

watty

You asked me once, what was in Room 101. I told you that you knew the answer already. Everyone knows it. The thing that is in Room 101 is the worst thing in the world.

The Ministry of Peace manages the War Effort. The Ministry of Love has Room 101

It's not just browsing habits. Tesco issues a "points card". This is really to track your shopping habits. All Google's Apps and services are simply "points cards". Their real purpose is to learn more about you. Google is not an ISP or a search engine. They will do both and more to improve their real business. Points cards and similar loyalty cards are mis-represented. People do not realise why shops are paying them for this. If they are RFID based, it could be worse as they are then not private. What privacy and security rules does the Store have? How effective are they?

What security, privacy rules and procedures has Google got? Have you any idea what they gather and what they do with it? If they might sell information later or how securely is it kept? Google won't say. Did you know that an Ad bot will follow you from page to page and site to site if google ads are on the page?

Did you know they don't need you to be logged in nor do they need cookies *?

Philip K. Dick, H.G. Wells, Harry Harrison, Roland Perry, Ray Bradbury, George Orwell, Aldous Huxley and other Distopian authors never imagined anything quite as insidious as Google**.

I don't care if Google offers World Peace, zero unemployment and free happy pills with no side effects. The cost is too high. East Germany was DDR (German Democratic Republic aka Deutsche Demokratische Republik). So what sort of organisation needs to claim "Do no evil" as its motto? I'm not a conspiracy nut. All this is in plain view. I don't subscribe to visits by little Green men, Dan Brown, Erik von Dankin, Faked moon landings or the CIA killing Kennedy or other similar nonsense. I just weigh up the facts.

[* my laptop: Your browser fingerprint appears to be unique among the 676,962 tested so far.]
[** Oddly the 1962 A for Andromeda Fred Hoyle & John Elliott has an evil Computer company called Intel absolutely unlike today's Intel ]