Google To Deliver GB Fiber?
According to the Google blog there is a possibility that some test communities might get Gigabit fiber (!) installed on a test basis. I find this interesting for several reasons, and think Google may be in a position to get a respectable bit of market share on this initiative. On a nationwide basis there we’re seeing a slow implementation of fiber to most communities, and what’s available isn’t all that fast compared with European and Asian markets. I’m in the technology industry and specialize in big-bandwidth projects. It doesn’t matter why the US has lagged behind in building and delivering this service. What’s important is that more and more end users are abandoning their Cable TV in favor of getting entertainment via the cloud. The value in a high-speed broadband connection cannot be over-emphasized; we’re already seeing SaaS and cloud-based storage become commonplace for household consumers – and Google has been in front of this wave (pun intended) for most of it. So, commoditizing the delivery of broadband itself allows us to have reasonably powerful machines at home with cloud scalability available on demand, along with nearly limitless storage. All that magic power and space exists “out there”, can be centrally managed / backed up for security and efficiency, and a fat pipe means it behaves more as if it were right inside your local machine.
Yes, it also means we can watch high-quality video on demand and eventually consume media without being shackled to the inaction of profit-driven cable / satellite providers. My gripes with Comcast digital TV have little to do with the content itself; it’s that their delivery vehicle is so clunky… horrid slow ugly interfaces on the menus / DVR, miserable artifact-laden over-compression and near-daily error messages popping up on clicking “next page”. Comcast’s broadband internet isn’t fast enough to allow my media computer to be the only source of video signal, and proprietary hardware / software decoding is how they optimize their content (and retain an end-to-end monopoly on its management). With legitimate competition for TRUE broadband delivery, those other providers will need to step it up; ultimately that’s good for everyone including them. Google, I await your shiny fiber photons with great anticipation.