Google promises speeds of up to 100 times faster than current broadband connections, once their fiber optic infrastructure is in place. They haven’t said what their future plans for the service are, so no one knows whether they’ll run the internet service themselves, or lease the infrastructure to local ISPs.
Whatever the plan is, Google’s main objective is to light the proverbial fire under the arses of American ISPs. For most of the last decade, ISPs have been content to sit on their aging networks and rake in the dough, without reinvesting much of their profit in improving their network technology. Some competition from Google’s insanely quick fiber network may well be the catalyst required for ISPs to move into the 21st century.
When the Google Fiber project was first announced in 2010, analysts figured it could cost them up to $1.6 billion to build the network, or $3000-8000 per household. That cost has likely fallen in the last two years, as FiOS technology has become more widely available, but it will still be a big expenditure for Google. Hopefully, the Kansas City network will be successful enough to lead to similar developments in other cities, by Google and other ISPs. I know I’d like to be surfing on a 1Gbps connection right now.
