While you weren’t looking, the internet got super fast. I’m not talking Google Fiber fast. I’m talking Star Trek fast. Today, it’s not just possible to download a movie in seconds. New technology makes it easy to download dozens of movies in fractions of a second. Fast is almost too slow a word to describe such speed.
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Today Google has let it be known that a collection of cities and metropolitan areas will be ready to roll for Google Fiber sooner than later. Potential cities on the … Continue reading
In what one commissioner called a “beta test” phase, the Federal Communications Commission has approved a program of trials that will study the shift to a new telephone network. This … Continue reading
Most of the world is still without gigabit Internet, and ISPs aren’t exactly flocking to bring that super-high-speed connectivity to cities. Start-up costs are just too unwieldy to attract ISPs to lay the fiber-optic networks necessary for operation, and the usual market forces aren’t supplying the necessary impetus to get things moving in most locations. […]
Google has built a fiber-optic network in Kampala, Uganda, the company announced today, and it is a huge step forward for the city’s Internet infrastructure. Until recently, Kampala was mostly on pre-broadband speeds. Today, the modern city of 1.2 million residents can now access the Internet at modern speeds. The initiative is called Project Link. […]
We live in a magical age filled with robot maids, flying cars (sorta
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We transmit almost a thousand petabytes of data over the ‘nets every month—an amount that’s growing exponentially, thanks to your narcissistic obsession with Snapchat. In fact, we’re quickly closing in on the limits of how much data optical fiber can transmit. Luckily, scientists at Boston University recently unveiled what could be the next generation of bandwidth tech.
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While Google is expanding its Fiber internet service to Austin, Texas and Provo, Utah, that doesn’t mean other cities can’t join in on the fun. Omaha, Nebraska is getting its own gigabit internet without the help from Google, thanks to internet service provider CenturyLink, who will be updating its current fiber optics platform to provide higher speeds.
The company says that its faster fiber-optics internet service should begin rolling out to a select number of markets in Omaha next week, with availability to almost 50,000 of its customers to arrive by October of this year. This makes Omaha the fifth city in the US to receive gigabit internet, with Kansas City being the first.
The latest city to receive Google Fiber will be Provo, Utah, which was just announced last month, as was the announcement that Google’s gigabit internet would be coming to Austin, Texas. Even certain locations in Vermont will be getting fiber-based internet (not provided by Google Fiber, though). Based on this trend, we should see more cities crop up to challenge other cities for the fastest internet.
However, ISPs in these areas aren’t too happy about the deal that Google is getting with its Fiber service, and they’re fighting back with comparable services of their own. For example, AT&T announced that it would offer gigabit internet in Austin alongside Google Fiber. The war is officially on, and for once it’s not taking place in a court room.
Omaha, Nebraska to receive gigabit internet from CenturyLink is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
It’s not secret that Google’s Fiber Internet program is growing by leaps and bounds – and here in Provo, Utah, it’s being initiated in a deal that’s costing Google only $1 USD at the outset. This deal is being made by Google to purchase the city’s municipal fiber-optic system that originally cost around $39 million to build. The Provo City Council will still have to make a final approval – this approval is expected to come to light by next Tuesday.
This will be just the newest in a line of Google Fiber systems being set up, Kansas City, Missouri and Austin, Texas already coming up quick. Google is making a big effort to become the premiere brand for fiber-optic internet in the United States here in 2013 as the rest of the industry remains relatively silent. Just this past month AT&T Fiber Internet was announced for Austin, Texas as well.
With the network being purchased today by Google being nearly ready to rock before they arrive, they’ll be able to set up a final system well before they’ve got marketable sales ready for Austin. Residents of Provo have been paying a charge of $5.35 per household per month on their utilities for an all-inclusive internet, television, and phone service for approximately 12 years – this update should have some effect on how that charge is assessed.
“Provo City’s vision has long been one where our residents have access to reliable high-speed broadband Internet. We know that communities are better – and communities are stronger – when people are connected. With this agreement, we have an opportunity to do things that few communities in this country get to do.” – Mayor John Curtis
Residents have been paying said fee regardless of their use of said services, and would have had to pay a rather sizable fee to activate the internet service they’d already been paying for: $700 USD. With Google onboard, they’ll be grabbing internet service at no additional fee just so long as they pay a much more reasonable $30 hook-up charge.
Google will have five years to build out Provo’s current system in place if the deal is finalized. They will also have just 180 days to take over the network successfully after the deal is signed. At the moment it does not appear that Google has any deals signed for TV service.
[via Provo]
Google buys fiber internet system in Utah for one dollar is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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