Google to provide broadband with 1 Gigabyte speed

Internet search giant, Google has shaken the tight-knit US broadband industry yesterday by announcing plans to enter into the super-fast broadband business by offering an experimental broadband speed up to 1 gigabit per second in the US, which is more than 100 times faster than what most broadband service provider's in the US offer today.

This move from the Mountain View, California-based company will send shivers down the spine of broadband service provider's like AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and others, who currently offer speeds of not more then 10 mbps in the US.

Making this announcement in a blog posting, Google's product managers, Minnie Ingersoll and James Kelly said that the company was planning to build and test, what Google calls, ''ultra high-speed'' broadband networks in a small number of trial locations across the country.

Google will be providing internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today with 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections at a competitive price to at least 50,000 customers initially, and later expand to 500,000 people.

Google said the purpose of this project is to experiment and learn and help make internet access better and faster for everyone. It also wants the project to become an open-access network and wants to see what developers and users can do with ultra high-speeds.

This is not the first time that Google has experimented with broadband business. In 2006, Google tied up with EarthLink Inc to provide free broadband service to the entire city of San Francisco the entire city of San Francisco, but later abandoned the plan after EarthLink pulled out and some city officials opposed the plan.