Hasta La Gadget!

I’m sure I’m not the only one that’s insanely jealous that Kansas City was able to win the Google Fiber project. The speeds people in served areas of Kansas City are able to get for the money is staggering. Kansas City now has some the fastest Internet in all of the US.

If you’re like me and have been holding out hope that Google would roll its insanely fast fiber service out to the rest of the country, those hopes are all but dashed. A new research note from analytics firm Goldman Sachs is estimated it would cost Google $140 billion or more to roll its Fiber service out to the rest of United States. Google, which happens to be one of the wealthiest tech companies out there, has $45 billion cash on hand.

That number is according to Goldman Sachs and is based on the company’s annual CAPEX budget of $4.5 billion. The analytics company also says that even if Google wanted to target only half the homes the US, the rollout of that network could cost as much as $70 billion.

That means Google would have to take out a massive loan to rollout its fiber service to most major markets around the country. Google obviously had some sort of plans for its fiber service or it wouldn’t have undertaken the expense of rolling out a pilot program in Kansas City. I’m still hoping Google might team up with another company or to in rollout crazy fast fiber-optic Internet, TV service, and phone service around the country.

[via BGR]

Estimates peg the cost for Google Fiber for all of the US at $140 billion is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It’s not like I live out in the sticks or anything, I’m only a few miles outside of a city of well over 100,000 people. However, I’m stuck with one DSL provider with 5 Mbps download and a scant 0.73 Mbps upload speed for $70 a month. Now, Google has gone and made me so jealous of its Google Fiber service that went live this week in Kansas City that I can hardly stand it.

A Google Fiber subscriber named Mike Demarais ran a speed test on his blazing fast new web connection the second it was live and racked up some very impressive numbers – though lower than the service’s theoretical top speed of 1 Gbps. He recorded a download speed of 696.38 Mbps and upload speed of 620.49 Mbps. Granted those speeds could go down as more users are on the service, but still that is insanely fast for $70 a month. In addition, speeds drop down to about 200Mbps over a Wi-Fi network, which is still plenty fast for most things.

The man says he was able to download a entire torrent of Ubuntu in about 2 minutes, though he doesn’t indicate how much data that involved. My DLS connection can hardly muster enough bandwidth to stream Netflix and play Call of Duty II at the same time – and you can forget having enough bandwidth to stream two TV shows at the same time.

Hopefully, we’ll start to see Google Fiber service roll out in more cities in the not-too-distant future.

[via Ars Technica]

If you’re one of Virgin Media’s top-tier internet customers, you may soon see your service getting a little speedier. The Branson-backed company is boosting its top speed from 100Mbps to 120Mbps, thanks to a £110 million ($169 million) infrastructure investment. The majority of the network — around 60 percent — has yet to be supercharged, but you can use the coverage checker linked below to see if you’re in-line for an early Christmas present from Sir Richard.

Continue reading Virgin Media begins pushing its UK broadband to 120Mbps, much to Usain’s delight

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Networking, Internet, HD

Virgin Media begins pushing its UK broadband to 120Mbps, much to Usain’s delight originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Oct 2012 07:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gigabit internet speeds are nothing more than a dream for most of us, but for residents of the Kansas Cities, that reality is not far off. The six-week pre-registration program for Google’s Fiber network closed yesterday, and at least 180 of the 202 “fiberhoods” earmarked for the upgrade have met their target. That number could rise when all the late entries have been counted, but we won’t know until the complete list of areas drops later this week. If yours doesn’t make the cut, it’s not all bad news: Google’s Jenna Wandres told us that although this initial rollout covers Kansas City, KS, and central Kansas City, MO, Fiber will be expanding north and south of the Missouri side in the future. When pre-registration opens for this second round, the 20-some-odd areas that failed to meet the initial criteria will get a second chance to, so start being extra nice to the neighbors if you want to get them on board.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t confirm even a ball park date for the expansion, but for the 180-plus hoods that qualify on this occasion, it’s time to get excited. Any RTS gamer will know the value of getting your openers tight, and El Goog’s currently compiling a “build order” so the areas that expressed the most interest in Fiber will have it first. According to Jenna, implementation is coming “very soon,” so be ready to repress that hysterical scream when you see a Google truck casing your block.

Filed under: Networking

Google Fiber pre-registration program closes in the Kansas Cities originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Sep 2012 15:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Stereotype-embracing ISP Plusnet has added a new tier of fibre-optic broadband, offering speeds up to 76Mb/s. The revamped Extra Fibre package now offers upload speeds of up to 19.5 Mb/s, with a 250GB monthly usage allowance, matching those offered by parent company BT. Of course, those of us who can’t even get ADSL2 will just have to watch on, with jealousy in our eyes.

Continue reading Plusnet pushes its UK-fibre-optic broadband to 76Mb/s

Filed under: Internet

Plusnet pushes its UK-fibre-optic broadband to 76Mb/s originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Aug 2012 06:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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