Google wants to push the development of “super-fast open broadband networks.” According to this story by Miguel Helft in The New York Times, Google is looking for a few selected communities where they can build demonstration networks that would allow “people to surf the Web at a gigabit a second, or about 100 times the speed of many broadband connections.”
“In Google’s vision of the future of the Internet, the live streaming of 3-D medical images from a rural health clinic to a specialized medical center or the downloading of a full-length movie in a matter of minutes would become commonplace.”
The company will be soliciting proposals from interested communities over the next six weeks with the goal of having a working system in place by the end of the year.
With our history of innovation in fiber optics from local companies like Ciena, I think Howard County would make a nice test bed for this project.
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9 hours ago
10 comments:
Heck yes, I was thinking the same thing when I heard about this. I don't know if Google is looking for an easier project than what we would offer, but it certainly would be a well-used testing ground.
Dennis will you submit our proposal? I'm afraid if it gets into the political/public arena a group will form that thinks our networks are already too crowded.
Tom is obviously a one-issue dude.
Somewhere in Baltimore County an HOA is adding internet to the services paid and provided to homeowners. I tried to get my HOA interested but they yawned.
Seems very reasonable that this can be handled in bulk much cheaper, like utilities.
For those who are interested I've started a facebook page, "Google Howard County."
-wb
WB, if you understand this enough to start a facebook page why don't you explain it a little better? What, exactly, would a "proposal" from the "community" entail? Why can't all these local companies with "a history of innovation in fiber optics" do this themselves? If it is possible to build a network like this within a year, why has no one done it? I LOVE Google but I have a ton of questions about this and all the articles about it seem to be extremely vague.
fm,
all good questions...a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step...
I just believe that the concept of "open network" seems to be an idea worth pursuing.
-wb
Just to follow up...I'll take care of my own internet connection, thank you. It's nice to have lots of choices, but one needs to winnow the wheat from the chaff.
Google is, in essence, an advertising company. They make money from presenting advertising to people who use their "free" services.
I have absolutely no problem with Google's business model or philospophy.
Google has great engineers, great applications, and a myriad of well thought out and presented ideas. I salute their mission statement, and I own some of their stock (full disclosure).
But, and it's a big but...Google uses information about you to sell more advertising space to vendors who see you as a potential customer, and your intellectual property--and yes, your search patterns and preferences are your intellectual property--are being hijacked by Google so that they can sold to others...that is, advertiser.
So, you can get a lot of cool stuff from Google, but the price--in privacy and in having to deal with advertisers--is a bit hidden, and a bit steep.
That's why they'll offer you free broadband, so they can get advertisements to you more quickly and efficiently. It's a hidden price that will take a toll on the unwary or the ignorant.
But now that you know this, you as an individual can now take advantage of Google.....
I love it when a plan comes together.
BTW, I'm getting like 2 GBps already from my current provider, and routinely watch live televison on my computer, so I'm a happy camper. I'm happy to pay for it.
Bob O- who is your provider? Those rates are astronomical. Are you sure you're talking GBps?
Anon, my bad, I did not mean gigabits (Gbps) OR gigabytes (GBps) per second. I was in error in my posting, I was talking megabits per second (Mbps). I am currently getting about 15.4 Mbps download and a bit over 5 Mbps upload from Verizon FIOS. Thanks for calling me on that, it was late and I was thinking of another project I've been working on lately. Mea culpa.
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