Rhyming schemes aside, news this week has revealed that Google may be getting into the internet service provider business, adding yet another layer of domination to our digital lifestyle. However, before we worry that Google is on the war path to control everything we know, remember that their motto is “Don’t Be Evil” and it shows here. Google isn’t extending their corporate arm into the frustrating and draconian world of content delivery for profit or to extort their customers, they’re doing it to show how other companies should lay down broadband internet access in the future, and maybe even encourage the Obama Administration to be more proactive in improving our broadband infrastructure.
Google’s plan is actually nothing incredibly revolutionary. What is exciting is that now a company is actually doing the obvious. Google plans to begin laying down fiber-to-the-home broadband (FTTH) by hopefully next year. Right now they are working on finding towns willing to participate in trials and acquiring stimulus money to finance their roll out. FTTH is similar to Verizon’s FiOS system implement in many of their key markets and involves running fiber optic cable directly to homes for incredible speed. Most systems like cable and DSL only use fiber cable up to a “node” which may service as much as 10000 homes with copper wiring running the last mile. FTTP has an advantage of incredible speed (Google’s roll out may run as high as 1Gbps) but is also remarkably expensive as it requires companies to literally dig trenches to homes that require service in order to get the wires to the house. Verizon has had to invest 10s of Billions of dollars in their FiOS system in order to make it practical. The fact that Google is promising 1Gbps is really remarkable. Verizon’s FiOS maxes at 50 Mbps download (about 1/20th of the speed), ADSL tops out at much lower speeds, and even DOCSIS 3.0 cable networks like Comcast top out at 50Mbps with a theoretical maximum still below 1Gbps (1000Mbps). Continue Reading
Digital Gravitas 