Google Fiber Launches Internet Service With Speeds 100 Times That Of Average US Connections [Updates]

Google Fiber has just selected Kansas City, Missouri, for the premier launch of its broadband Internet and TV service. What’s remarkable is that Google has announced that speeds available will be 100 times more than the ones currently available now in the United States.

At 1 GB per second, Google’s ultra-fast service would easily top any rival ISP and could be a game changer in a slightly static industry. Kansas City was selected from nearly 1,100 other cities that were interested.

The launch and its fate could also portend Google’s nationwide roll-out.

Google Fiber is a package of HD television channels (priced at $120 a month for a package of major broadcast networks), broadband internet at 1 GB per second, and 1 terabyte of cloud storage. Spending $70 per month will give you only internet, if you aren’t too keen on the TV channels that includes the likes of Nickelodeon, Discovery, Bravo, Starz and Showtime. Google has sweetened the deal for early adopters by offering a Nexus 7 with every sign-up that can be used as a remote control for the Google TV. With Google Fiber you can simultaneously record eight TV shows at a time and store up to 500 hours of high definition programming.

Installation will start in select neighborhoods which show collective interest. Read more on how to get it if you are in Kansas. Even if you are not, sit back and think what this could mean for tomorrow’s communities. And yes, do express it in the comments.

Source: Google Fiber

Saikat Basu

Saikat is a techno-adventurer in a writer's garb. When he is not scouring the net for tech news, you can catch him looking for life hacks and learning tidbits. You can find him on Google+ & Twitter watching over the world.

The comments were closed because the article is more than 180 days old.

If you have any questions related to stuff mentioned in the article or need help with any computer issue, just ask it on MakeUseOf Answers.

Hide 49 Comments

  • Keefe Kingston July 29, 2012
    0 likes

    If only Google would expand into the rural areas where I live…that’d be the day. I’d ditch my current 1.5Mbps connection faster then you can say Google! XD

    | Like
    • Matt Broam (AKA H3X0) July 31, 2012
      1 like

      Well, since it’s fiber instead of copper, it’ll be FAR more feasible to implement.

      With traditional copper, tons and tons of very expensive, lossy cabling must be buried, and it’s unlikely that more than 3 customer connections could be multiplexed on each copper pair. The latency would be horrid in a rural setting, and the lack of large, metal urban buildings would leave the copper pairs more susceptible to radio interference, which would degrade the signal, cause packets to be lost, and just be a pain in the ass in general.
      However, fiber optics weigh less per bandwidth unit, and also take up much less space, permitting at least a sixfold increase in bandwidth per bundle size compared to copper. Several customer connections can be combined into a single strand of multimode fiber, and, since the data is literally traveling at the speed of light, latency will be miniscule at best. Since the data is traveling over light instead of electricity, the data will be unaffected by RF interference, even if every radio and TV transmitter in the US were moved next to the fiber and turned to full-blast!
      Plus, with a whopping 1GB/s (Note: that’s an uppercase “B”) at your disposal, you won’t need more bandwidth for at least a decade!

      Before I stop droning on about the details, I will leave you with something to ponder…

      Does anyone REALLY need THAT much PORN?!?!?!

      | Like
    • Thegreatvinay August 3, 2012
      0 likes

      getting 1.5Mbps ??? that’s really great when compared to my India’s 512kbps and when it turns 256Kbps after 6GB Bandwidth…… i will worship Google if I get fiber at my house. :)

      | Like
  • Nick July 29, 2012
    0 likes

    Google will one day control the world.

    | Like
    • Fik-of-borg July 29, 2012
      0 likes

      One day? The solar system consists of Mercury, Venus, Google, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and (yes) Pluto.

      | Like
    • Tibor Szentmarjay July 30, 2012
      0 likes

      Don’t think they want to control. But they want to know everything.

      | Like
  • MerVzter Balacuit July 29, 2012
    0 likes

    what a nice plan, but what a sad for my country till i wait another 25-50 years maybe haha

    | Like
  • Led Cara July 29, 2012
    1 like

    Wow! This is so great! So much better than what we have here in the Philippines, I do hope that someday, Google will make it’s way to lunch their service here.
    For sure, the major ISPs here will all get worried! Hahahaha

    | Like
  • Brian Strunk July 29, 2012
    0 likes

    The best part about this is the nearly 800 mbs upstream. Upload speeds in the US are deplorable, at best.

    | Like
    • Saikat Basu July 29, 2012
      0 likes

      Yes, we focus so much on download speeds, we forget that there’s something called as n upload too. More relevant today because we have so much of cloud computing.

      | Like
      • Brian Strunk July 29, 2012
        0 likes

        Agreed. Also, the importance of off-site backup makes the paltry 1 MBs upstream I currently receive grossly inadequate. Cheers to google, and other providers, for offering more equitable upload speeds.

        | Like
        • Saikat Basu July 29, 2012
          0 likes

          Plus, if this succeeds nationwide, just think what it would do for the ‘garage entrepreneurs’. You can launch your own startup from the bedroom and not worry about internet infrastructure. The tech development potential is huge.

          | Like
        • Matt Broam (AKA H3X0) July 31, 2012
          0 likes

          You think 1MB/s upstream is “paltry”?!?! I’d KILL for 1MB/s upstream! I get a measly 768Kb/s! and that’s a lowercase “k”!

          | Like
  • Joel Lee July 29, 2012
    0 likes

    The major ISPs are going to flip out if they aren’t already. I hope Google Fiber succeeds because if it does, the infrastructure of American Internet is going to see a massive improvement over the next decade or two.

    | Like
    • Saikat Basu July 29, 2012
      0 likes

      I hope one day there will be national grids everywhere, where we just have to plug-in and connect to the web or broadcast networks. Just like electricity :)

      | Like
  • Va Du July 29, 2012
    0 likes

    Very jealous. I can’t even get any sort of fiber optics in my area and their package far exceeds what I get now. Did I mention I was super jealous.

    | Like
  • Muhammad Ahmad July 29, 2012
    0 likes

    Google is the name of competition. Good Luck Google.

    | Like
  • Vanja Gorgiev July 29, 2012
    0 likes

    i know that this will never make to my country, but i will say WoW Google ! Good job !

    | Like
  • Luke Brannon July 29, 2012
    0 likes

    I absolutely love this idea, I can not wait till it starts rolling out to the UK so I can ditch shitty sky and have a lovely google package and tbh that 1tb cloud storage has really made it the deal maker for me :D

    | Like
  • Pedro Oliva July 29, 2012
    0 likes

    wow… i waiting for Guatemala :D… ok, not! :/ (500 years after)

    | Like
  • Craig Snyder July 29, 2012
    0 likes

    I’ll take two of them.

    | Like
  • Robert Stanulis July 29, 2012
    0 likes

    True game changer. Hoping competition works to match this service/price combination.

    | Like
  • sabih July 29, 2012
    0 likes

    Amazing! 1GB per second? That’s unimaginable. Now internet servers have to step up their game ;)

    | Like
  • Yash Desai July 29, 2012
    0 likes

    please please, bring this to nj

    | Like
  • Michael R Heronema July 30, 2012
    0 likes

    Hopefully this will create healthy competition and the other communication corps. will step it up & bring this next higher-speed tech to the world. Very Cool Google, Keep it up.

    | Like
    • Saikat Basu July 30, 2012
      0 likes

      There’s still a long long way to go, and the implementation is a whole new game for Google. It is something where Google does not have experience (ISP is a highly-customer focused industry…web search is not). So, let’s see how Google manages the promise.

      | Like
      • Dany Bouffard July 30, 2012
        0 likes

        I hope google fiber wil also expand do other country like Canada. I’m from Canada and I would like to have Google Fiber too.

        | Like
  • Andrew July 30, 2012
    0 likes

    That’s awesome but how are the next cities chosen

    | Like
  • Charles Babb July 30, 2012
    0 likes

    If Google can successfully launch Google Fiber, it will hopefully start an Internet bandwidth race with the cable/ Internet provider competitors. I look forward to its success and what it will mean for television and the Internet.

    | Like
  • Yang Yang Li July 30, 2012
    0 likes

    I hope Google includes Kansas City, Kansas inside its network. It would be shameful to have to travel to Missouri for fast internet :-(

    My friend brought this up the other day and it seemed all familiar. I asked my friend if he was refering to Google Toilet IP. His response was What!?
    (it is a reference to Google’s April Fools joke a few years back)

    | Like
  • Harron Subhani July 31, 2012
    0 likes

    remarkable development and change.

    | Like
  • Rohan Jagtap July 31, 2012
    0 likes

    Here in India, it would take years to start a service with such a speed! Mostly people are either not using Internet or they are using mobile 2G. I have limited broadband of 750kbps which costs me approx 30$ per month. :-(

    | Like
  • Marjorie McDonald July 31, 2012
    0 likes

    BRING IT TO CANADA PLEEEEASE

    communications in general is daylight robbery up here, and customers are left with virtually no choice

    | Like
  • Blake Andreasen August 1, 2012
    0 likes

    I bid Salt Lake City be the next city to get Google Fiber!!!

    | Like
    • Blake Andreasen August 1, 2012
      0 likes

      I am seriuously considering moving to Kansas. What the heck is there, except for Google Fiber?

      | Like
    • Saikat Basu August 1, 2012
      0 likes

      Did you go online and vote for your city?

      | Like
  • Igor Rizvi? August 1, 2012
    0 likes

    So jelaous right now :)

    | Like
  • Salman Khan August 2, 2012
    0 likes

    Google Rocks !!!

    | Like
  • Steven Kim August 2, 2012
    0 likes

    Wow!! wish i lived there!

    | Like
  • Sushil Kathpalia August 2, 2012
    0 likes

    OMG, In India 1GB is downloaded in some weeks …
    So they have great speed in just a seconds…

    | Like
    • Saikat Basu August 2, 2012
      0 likes

      The average here in India is a 256kbps connection, though some ISPs give you more for peer to peer downloading within their networks.

      | Like
  • Coupon Hop August 2, 2012
    0 likes

    C”mon, Google! Make it to Sarasota!

    | Like
  • Deepak Kapoor August 3, 2012
    0 likes

    1 gbps? oh man! 120 bucks? i offer 150, please offer that in india :D

    | Like
  • Ashwin Divakaran August 4, 2012
    0 likes

    Sweet! I guess broadband is back to business

    | Like
  • @neum August 5, 2012
    0 likes

    I’d still like to know what hardware in homes they will use to route a 1gbps connection. Most home and small business routers make out at sever hundred kbps in actual routing throughput. Even pfSense suggests a multi-core machine to route more than 500mpbs.

    http://www.androidfamily.net/

    | Like
    • Saikat Basu August 8, 2012
      0 likes

      That’s why the first implementation will be interesting. My knowledge of routing and networking is limited, but I am sure devices will catch up simply because a market will be created. So, the teething phase will be crucial, simply because Google will have to set up a vast infrastructure in something that is not its traditional bread and butter.

      | Like
  • Declan Lopez August 26, 2012
    0 likes

    I would love faster internet, but the internet I am using now is fine at 54Mbps.

    | Like
    • Saikat Basu August 26, 2012
      0 likes

      Wow! How much more of speed do you need :)

      | Like
  • JOSEPH September 24, 2012
    0 likes

    Hope they expand to other cities soon I hate century Dnk!

    | Like