ureadit

Sorry about the lack of posts lately. My folks are visiting for the weekend, and it’s been difficult to find the time to focus on a blog entry. I did manage to find something interesting in a drive-by blog reading today, and I thought you might be interested as well: Google wants to get into the Internet Service Provider (ISP) business.

I’m not sure about the wisdom of allowing a single company to fill yet another critical link in our online lives, but the Google-ISP proposal looks tempting.

A recent announcement on the Google blog spells it out: Google wants to set up an experimental fiber optic network that can provide up to 1 Gigabit broadband fiber-optic access to the home. Their plan, so far, is to provide high speed access to somewhere between 50,000 to 500,000 people. This would be done as part of a trial experiment, so of course, there are no guarantees of a sustainable service beyond the trial period. The service would be provided at a “competitive price,” which, in my book, means slightly less than I currently get through Verizon FIOS. FIOS provides me with a 20Mbps fiber optic downlink for about $40 per month, so I would have to question the actual price from Google, where the speed is scaled by a factor of 50. Will a “competitive price” be scaled by the same amount? At this point, 20Mbps from FIOS seems sufficient, and the $40 per months is a good deal. FIOS also allows me to add TV and phone packages to the fiber optic cable – something Google doesn’t mention in their pitch. Nevertheless, Google’s ambition is probably something worth investigating.

 

 

You can get the story for yourself at the Google blog site. Google wants to work with a number of municipalities to roll out their service to specific areas. If you’re a city council member (or know someone who is), you may want to spend some time considering the proposal from Google, provided the price is something that your constituents can reasonably be expected to pay.

Best,

Dan

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