Google Unveils Superfast Internet

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Encouraging residents here to rally each other, Google on Thursday unveiled the highly anticipated details of its new ultrahigh-speed Internet network, which is supposed to run 100 times faster than typical broadband connections.
The service, known as Google Fiber, will offer residents in selected parts of the metropolitan area in both Kansas and Missouri the option of purchasing the gigabit Internet service for $70 a month or both the Internet and a television service for $120 a month. The TV service, Google said, comes with a Nexus 7 tablet that serves as a remote.
The announcement, made in a plaza on the Kansas-Missouri state line, is Google’s venture into a world of broadband providers who have looked skeptically at the company’s effort. Some have branded it a publicity stunt that will do little to advance the country’s broadband agenda. Typical broadband providers undertake the costly task of providing service to millions of homes, while Google’s prototype will reach far fewer customers – the initial round here is available to about 170,000 homes.
But Google executives said they were hoping to bring Internet speeds up to date with existing technology, noting that the current average household broadband speed was only slightly faster than it was 16 years ago when it was first introduced in homes.
“The next phase of the Internet, the next chapter of the Internet is written here today,” Patrick Pichette, Google’s chief financial officer, said in an interview after a presentation that included video demonstrations.
Mr. Pichette and other Google executives were noticeably coy about whether the model announced on Thursday would be expanded nationwide. Instead, they said they were focusing on maximizing the product in Kansas City.
“We believe the Internet should give these high speeds to everyone in the U.S.,” Mr. Pichette said. “It’s about making it available. Our showcase is here.”
Milo Medin, the company’s vice president of access services, said the technology and technical capacity were available to create this product on a global scale, but economics, such as the cost of constructing the fiber network in communities, presented a barrier. Asked whether the company planned to expand to other communities, Mr. Medin said, “Stay tuned.”
The new network will operate at speeds of one gigabit per second, Google said, which means that downloading a full-length movie or sending 3-D medical images will take only a few minutes.
Analysts say Google wants to provide such high-speed Internet to flex its muscle in Washington, where policy makers have been criticized for being slow to deliver national broadband, and for the simple business reason that the more people use the Internet, the more people use Google.
Google has divided parts of Kansas City, Mo., and Kansas City, Kan., into various “fiberhoods,” and asked people in each of those areas where the service will be available to register, and pay a $10 deposit, if they are interested in acquiring it. The areas that draw the most registrants over the next six weeks will be the first to have access to the service in the fall. All fiberhoods that get enough homes (generally between 40 and 80) to register will get the service by the end of next year.
The hope is to create grass-roots excitement, with residents encouraging their neighbors to register for the service so that they can be among the first to get it. Google has said it will also wire community hubs such as hospitals, schools and libraries in the neighborhoods that register the most people.
The company also has offered people in wired areas the option of obtaining a free 5-megabit-per-second broadband connection, but they will have to pay a $300 construction fee.
Fiberhoods are currently in Kansas City, Kan., and central Kansas City, Mo. They will eventually be expanded to northern and southern Kansas City, Mo., Google said, but a timeline has not yet been announced.
To illustrate the difference between typical broadband and Google Fiber, Mr. Medin said that if two cars left Kansas City for New York at the same time, the one traveling 100 times faster would reach New York before the other car even left Missouri.
The details were unveiled more than a year after Google announced that Kansas City had beaten about 1,100 other cities that applied to be the first to be wired with the new broadband service. The contest set off a flood of gimmicky efforts to attract the company’s attention – from Topeka, which changed the name of its city to Google for a month, to Madison, Wis., which created a “Google Fiber” ice cream flavor.

By JOHN ELIGON
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/26/google-unveils-superfast-internet-in-kansas-city-mo/