Google looks to offer 10 Gb/s internet speed

Google is said to be working on a new technology that would change the way we use the internet today, in the context of speed.

Google is working on higher internet speeds, a blazing 10 Gb/second, as compared to its existing 1 GB/second speed offered by Google Fibre in Kansas City, USA Today reports.

Google's CFO Patrick Pichette revealed at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet conference that the search giant was making progress towards offering the 10 Gb/s speed.

Pichette referred to this as the next-gen internet and it formed part of the company's broader, long-term obsession with speed, according to the USA Today report. Faster Internet data speeds would boost the use of software as a service, as users would be able to trust data intensive critical applications that would run smoothly over the internet, he explained.

That, he said, was where the world was going, it might happen over a decade, but Google would like to make it available in three years, adding that was what Google was working on.

Google was not working on the project alone. Last year, researchers in the UK announced that they achieved data transmission speeds of 10 Gb/s using "li-fi" a wireless internet connectivity technology that used light, as USA Today reported.

But Google's rivals were not standing still either, reports PC World. For instance, three years ago, Verizon successfully field-tested its own 10-Gbit up/10-Gbit down fibre network that delivered a 2.3-Gbyte movie file in just four seconds across its own XG-PON2 technology, to a business in Taunton, Mass.

Verizon said at the time that one could not expect to see TV ads for a new 10 gigabit FiOS internet service in the neighbourhood right away, adding that the market for speed just had not evolved to that level yet, but it gave an idea of what could be achieved with the new technology.

The City of Santa Monica also offered 100 Mbit/s, 1 Gbit/s, and 10 Gbits/s fibre optic connections from its own City Net On-net buildings to ISPs connected to the network in downtown Los Angeles, even though it was a far cry from direct 10-Gbit connections to homes.