Google have delayed the decision of which US neighbourhoods will receive
super-fast broadband of up to 1Gbit/sec after it asked communities in the US to
put together a proposal for why their area should be enabled. A winner was
expected to be chosen this year but this has been delayed till next year due to
the incredible level of interest. Google hope to reach between 50,000 and
500,000 homes through this programme.
We had planned to announce our selected community or communities by the end
of this year, but the level of interest was incredible—nearly 1,100 communities
across the country responded to our announcement—and exceeded our expectations.
While we’re moving ahead full steam on this project, we’re not quite ready to
make that announcement.We’re sorry for this delay, but we want to make sure we get this right. To
be clear, we’re not re-opening our selection process—we simply need more time
to decide than we’d anticipated. Stay tuned for an announcement in early
2011.Google statement
A similar service to
850 university homes near the google headquarters in Stanford will start to
roll out next year..
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incredible level of interest. says it all really. Why won’t the telcos and governments get real? Fibre is the future. see http://tinyurl.com/22lwooz this is MEGA
Next year is 2011 John.
1,100 communities in a country with a population of over 300 million and many very poorly served areas responding to Google building them fibre without charging them. Shocker.
CD – if you guys are capable of largely funding it yourselves you don’t need telco interference or government intervention beyond at the most local level so go for it.
Be happy you can do such a scheme, it’s something that’s simply not an option for urban areas due to the geography.
cd (ref your comments on that cumbria article) why exactly do you feel “sorry” for Cornwall. You always slate what has been proposed (I believe its 80/90% FTTC/FTTP) but don’t give any alternatives.
80/90% is great, they’ll see FTTC/FTTP before I do. There’s a pot of money that will go so far and its about how to get the most bang for you buck, in your very limited view you’d end up delivering fibre to 10 villages in cornwall and then run out of money. You’ve no viable plan for any FTTH deliveries yet you dig at companies that have?
If the dreamer in CD’s link can deliver free trenching, or even trenching at “£1.25-1.50 per metre” he’ll be making a lot of money and we’ll see these networks spread like wildfire.
Shame it’s an order of magnitude lower than the lowest quote obtained in practice, it’s even lower than mooted duct rental prices so go figure.
@cd:There’s an incredible amount of interest in unprotected sex, alcohol and drug abuse. Should the government subsidise those as well?
More seriously – governments that pander to popular demand are usually bad governments. Are your memories of the Blair/Brown era already fading?
the alternatives are in the article.
The alternatives are still pipedreams we’ve yet to see one happen and can they be replicated across a whole area like cornwall or the country?
Perhaps the solution is to take Government money off the table. That way all these initiatives (incl BT) can thrive without having to sit drooling and waiting for money to fall off a tree.
All this open access crap can be ditched too.
cd – please tell us how FTTC will be funded in built-up areas.
through the magic fibre fairy
CD is an idiot , does not even grasp the basics of either economics or technical aspects.
She isn’t an idiot she just recites the links she reads without doing any critique as they are what she wants to see. Describing her as an idiot is harsh, she’s merely ‘passionate’.
passionately mis-informed, and over eager to comment on a subject she has limited understanding of, and living in a dream world. No one disputes that FTTH/P everywhere would be great, but it is simply unrealistic and unaffordable. She also needs to listen to what people tell her, and do some research. She still doesn’t get how the current phone/ADSL/internet etc. systems work, yet is all to willing to slag it off for still apparently all running on evil copper!
a person who refuses to listen to what other people say is an idiot. Can’t think of a better example.
It not hard to listen to what other people are saying (even if you don’t agree with what they saying) and then come back with counter argument/statement. Hell if my 6 year old cousin can do that
I thought the purpose of our comments, was to state views on the Google article and not bad mouth each other. If we’re in this forum, I suspect we’re all passionate about getting faster broadband to our communities.
Perhaps energies would be better spent in each of use contacting Google and suggesting they do similar trials in the UK. I doubt Google will want to spend as much as in the US but perhaps a couple of FTTP trials at up to 1Gb would start to show the benefits of such schemes. A step which would make BT and Virgin take note would be a company the size of Google showing it’s hand.
Do Google even know where the UK is? 🙂
Cyberdoyle sets out the technical solution we should all aim for, and this has come under attack from those who offer a more pragmatic view on what is “do-able.” There are plenty of times in the history of Britain when if we had gone for what is “do-able” and lowered our sights we would not have the roads, railways etc which we now take for granted. Without the Cyberdoyles of this world trying to raise aspirations, we will be stuck in the internet snow lane, watching other nations whizz past.
There are no issues about FTTP everywhere being do-able, it’s just the cost that cd is ignoring.
No fibrewarrior, cyberdoyle states the obvious that we all know, what is lacking is a business plan/funding.
Head in the clouds I’m afraid, please don’t make out what she is saying is worthwhile/some sort of hero, it just consists of bitter attacks at copper and BT.
We all know we’d all love FTTP, but some actually have common and business sense.
I know it’s unpopular around here to dig yourself out of the telcos nice warm brown hole, but how about providing some constructive criticism? I haven’t seen any here, and only Somerset seems to have even read the link (though only, it appears, to groundlessly claim that it’s never going to be possible). Where are your numbers for ultra rural civil work coming from, for example?
Where did I say ‘it’ is not possible?