Google to Offer Broadband Internet

Here’s the big number: 1gbps.

That’s fast. At the very least, 20 times faster than the fast UK service and around 500 times better than the 2mbps speed that the British government is aiming for. Not to sour grape, but Google’s new service will only be available in the United States and it is still not yet known which areas will actually have it.

So far, reports are stating that the actual service will be made available to only 500,000 communities in the US; though even if this never actually makes it outside the US, as long as Google’s service becomes successful, then other internet service providers might follow suit.

Offering speeds of up to 1gbps may sound impressive, but it is completely worthless unless you are only connected to Google service and it’s very limited content (though sites such as YouTube will be getting a major boost in access speeds). It may also be a platform by which applications that rely on high speed transfers can be launched. So far, Google is still looking for communities to test their services with. Interested communities are encouraged to sign up with Google to process the application.

If this goes well, it would not be surprising to see Google take an even greater role in the field of mobile telecommunications.

Google has done a great job at trying to make itself an integral part of society. While not everyone remembers that it was Google behind plenty of the trends we see today, the search engine has entered OS development for computers and mobile phones (the Chrome and the Android OS). They have also tried social networking recently (not quite successful though), and it is still one of the most comprehensive and trustworthy search engines around.

Learn more about the new broadband service from Google at Times Online UK.