Google had announced a while ago, that they were planning to build and test ultra-high speed broadband networks for some select American communities. They are now ready to launch a beta of this ambitious project.
The lucky community where the beta will be launched is at Stanford University, where the residential section of the faculty and staff will be receiving this facility shortly.
Once the beta is launched, the approximately 850 homes around the campus are expected to receive broadband services at a speed of about 1 gigabit per second, which is over a 100 times faster than what the average Internet user can currently expect to receive.
Google aims to be able to provide such a service to a community of between 50,000 to 5, 00,000 people in select localities. These areas have not yet been chosen, but Google hopes to be able to announce them by the end of the year.
The tie up with Stanford will allow them to receive feedback, in order to be able to fine tune the service before the general launch takes place.
The selection of Stanford University for the beta testing phase was based upon a number of factors, not the least of which is the convenient distance between the University and the Google headquarters. This makes it easy for the engineers at Google to have access to the site to carry out their further studies.
Another factor for the selection is the openness which Stanford displayed for the testing of this new fibre optic technology. Also the size of the residential section of the University seems appropriate to Google’s requirements.
Those who opt to participate in this beta launch will have to pay a one-time installation fee after which the service will be free for the first year.
Further details about the project will be made available by Google to the participants in the coming weeks. They hope to be able to start breaking ground early next year.
