Google Goes Warp Speed: Plans to Deploy Fiber-to-The-Home in Several Communities Nationwide

Google continues its streak of innovations by announcing plans to set up ultra high-speed, fiber-to-the-home networks in several communities around the United States. It has released an RFI, or Request for Information, allowing communities and members of the public to comment on its proposal through March 26. The company plans to release the list of selected communities later this year.

Cities and towns across the country, from Maine to California, are already doing their best to convince Google to come to their area. From Saco, Maine to Palo Alto, California, communities large and small are jockeying for position on this next-generation network. Google did not specify whether this network will be aimed primarily at urban, suburban or rural communities, although its planned user base of 50,000 to 500,000 homes suggests that large urban areas will not be included.

The network’s proposed 1 gigabit per second connections would be fast enough to download a high-definition video in five minutes or allow for instantaneous cross-country collaboration between physicians. Such an ultra high-speed network could potentially create huge breakthroughs in long-distance academic arenas as well. Google hopes the deployment of this network will lead to an explosion of new applications and services that aren’t even on the horizon at America’s current broadband speeds. Cloud computing, a way of sharing computing resources across the internet that has recently been gaining in popularity, could also greatly benefit from such high-speed access.

Google has stated that their network will be "open access," allowing users to choose between a number of service providers, unlike networks built by telephone and cable companies. Google also pledges to manage their network in an "open, non-discriminatory and transparent way," referring to the ongoing debate raging at the FCC and in Congress regarding net neutrality. As a leader in this area, Google could use its network to encourage other providers to embrace the principals of net neutrality, which declare that no content will be given a higher priority level than any other.

The deployment of this network will also allow Google to work the potential bugs out of the process before it is implemented on a much larger scale. In short, Google has decided that it will be the guinea pig for future companies or institutions that wish to provide community-wide fiber-to-the-home access at this speed.

As a comparison, Verizon FiOS, Verizon’s fiber-to-the-home service, offers maximum speeds of only 50 Mbit/S, although the technology is capable of sending data at greater than 100 Mbit/s. This is still ten times slower than Google’s projected speeds.

Google has not released target dates for any other project milestones. Local governments or other interested parties can comment through March 26, (date subject to change), at: http://www.google.com/appserve/fiberrfi.