Hasta La Gadget!

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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Ethernet might seem passé to those of us toting Ultrabooks, but it’s important enough to provoke a crisis for internet providers and many of those who depend on high-speed computing networks for a living: based on the rises of streaming video and social networking, the IEEE is worried that many of those large-scale networks will need 10Tbps of total bandwidth just to avoid a logjam in 2020. To that end, the standards body has formed a Higher-Speed Ethernet Consensus group that’s mulling a new, breakneck-speed format reaching either 400Gbps or 1Tbps, depending on whose approach you’d favor. Fight the urge to pick the 1Tbps option on instinct, however. Both options would depend on bonding multiple connections together, and the faster of the two formats could lead to some expensive and very ungainly cables if it’s not handled well. A meeting is scheduled for late September in Geneva to at least begin hashing out the details. Although we won’t be wiring our homes with terabit Ethernet anytime soon, the standard should come quickly enough that the Googles and Netflixes of the world can satisfy our data addictions for a good while longer.

[Image credit: Justin Marty, Flickr]

Continue reading IEEE pushes for Ethernet standard between 400Gbps and 1Tbps, hopes to head off big data crunch

Filed under: Networking

IEEE pushes for Ethernet standard between 400Gbps and 1Tbps, hopes to head off big data crunch originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Aug 2012 18:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Avanti has been beaming satellite broadband to Europe for awhile, but it’s been tied to a subscription through carrier deals. That’s a tough sell to customers who, by definition, don’t want to be tied to anything — which is why the company just launched prepaid satellite internet access for the continent. Although the Ka-band service’s 4Mbps downstream and 1Mbps upstream speeds won’t have anyone dropping their 330Mbps fiber anytime soon, the pay-as-you-go strategy will let travelers and rural dwellers get broadband in a pinch, no matter how spotty terrestrial access might get. Imagine Skype calls during Swiss ski vacations and you’ve got the gist of it. Carriers will resell the data in healthy doses of 1GB or larger, and Avanti is adamant that there won’t be any nasty throttling surprises waiting in store. While exact prices will depend on partners, the provider isn’t waiting for those details before it covers much of the Old World: its upcoming HYLAS 2 satellite (what you see above) will share the speed with Africa, the Caucasus region and the Middle East as of August 2nd, making it almost too easy for us to update Google+ in Georgia.

Filed under: Wireless, Networking

Avanti launches prepaid, Ka-band satellite internet access, wants us Yelping from the Alps originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Jul 2012 12:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hefty price tags haven’t exactly made cellphones ubiquitous in cash-strapped Myanmar. According to AFP, an estimated 96 percent of the nation’s 60 million inhabitants don’t own a mobile handset, but that might soon be changing. A new reform plan announced by Myanmar’s Post and Telecommunication Minister, Thein Tun, lays out a strategy that could finally give said folks a crack at affordable cellular and internet services. If succesful, the initiative will start a bidding process for international telcos to set up shop in the country, allowing the companies to partner with the state-owned telephone provider and the ISP Yatanarpon Teleport. There’s no word on when the partnerships may coalesce, but here’s to hoping that $200 SIM card registration fees in Myanmar soon become a thing of the past. Full details at the source link below.

[Photo credit: Soe Than Win, AFP]

Filed under: Internet

Myanmar plans to open doors to foreign telcos for affordable cellular, internet service originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Jul 2012 23:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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