Google, known mainly for its search engine and excellent email service has decided to go after the lucrative home entertainment and communications market by rolling out a High Speed Internet Service called, ‘Google Fiber’. At this point, the service is only available in, of all places, Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Kansas. But, who knows, maybe your city will be next?
So, how does Google provide their high-speed internet service and what does it cost? Here’s a screenshot from their website.
There are basically 3 pricing options:
- Pay nothing to install. Then pay $120/month for Gigabit (yes, that’s 1,000Mbps!) internet + TV (not sure what content Google will be making available)
- Pay nothing to install. Then pay $70/month for just the Gigabit internet. This is enough bandwidth to run an entire corporation’s internet connection, in case you wondered. 🙂
- Pay $300 to install Google Fiber at your house. Then pay nothing, nada, zero for 5Mbps down and 1Mbps up speed! This is the level of service that Comcast currently charges at least $35 month for! Sign meup.
Google’s plans for world domination, or at least internet world domination, are pretty obvious. Along with the screaming fast internet service, they will be offering the following hardware components to fill all your computing, entertainment, and communication needs:
- Google’s new Android tablet, the Nexus 7 (which will double as the remote for your TV).
- A TV box that will provide you with access to live TV, on-demand shows, and other Internet content (think Netflix, Hulu, etc).
- A Network Box. Essentially, a Gigabit speed wired + wireless modem to connect you to the Google powered high speed internet.
- The Storage Box will provide you with 2 Terabytes of local storage to store all your digital content, from movies and TV shows to your own photos and home videos. Of course, this local storage solution will integrate with ‘Google Drive’, Google’s ‘cloud services’ for automated backup of all your priceless digital treasures.
- And last, but not least, Google is offering their ill-fated Netbook, known as the ‘Chromebook’ as an optional $299 add-on.
For now, Google hasn’t unveiled any plans to roll out their fiber to highly populated areas like Seattle, New York or L.A. But, knowing Google, if this Kansas City experiment proves profitable, we will be seeing more of this type of service in a city near you.
What do you think? Would you sign up, if Google came to town? Sound off in the comments below.