I'll let you know how well works! (maybe). // Lennar t
http://www.channel3000.com/technology/22568800/detail.html Officials, Businesses Hope To Lure High-Speed Internet Project To Madison Google To Announce Test Site MADISON, Wis. -- Google is preparing a project touted to yield Internet connections a hundred times faster than what's available today and many local officials and businesses said that they hope the company will select the Madison area as the test site. Google, which is currently the world's biggest search engine company, appears interested in venturing into the infrastructure business. It's seeking to become involved in how people connect to the Internet. These days, people who are curious about something can easily "Google it." Now, Google wants to help its users find what they're looking for much faster. The search giant unveiled the plan on Thursday in a video announcement for what's called "Gigabit Internet to the Home," asking for cities to serve as test sites. Some Madison leaders want to make sure it is one of them. The project intends to allow users to download a DVD worth of content -- nearly 5 gigabytes -- in 40 seconds. Alder Mark Clear, who also owns an information technology company, got a blazing fast reaction to the news. "Within a few minutes, I had a dozen people telling me about it and saying, 'Madison needs to be on the case for this,'" he said. City officials have formed a team to submit an official application to Google, which has an office in Madison. Clear said he thinks the city might have a shot. "I think it is realistic," he said. The plan could offer such options as high-definition television deliverable on demand to a resident's computer. "There are certainly lots of other possibilities in terms of real-time communications, things like that, that you just can't do given the infrastructure we have today," Clear said. Kevin Conroy, president and CEO of Madison biotech firm Exact Sciences, said that the news opens new doors to productivity. "Today, there are files that we can't even receive," he said. "We need to break up into multiple chunks to get them. So, you take something that should be instantaneous and it takes a couple of people time to break this up on both ends," Conroy said he believes becoming a test site could make Madison an even bigger technology hotbed, opening doors to new business. "I think that what you're going to see is applications that we can't even begin to imagine today because of the bandwidth log jams that we have," Conroy said. The project's faster connection speeds would be achieved by building a fiber to the home infrastructure. For the first time, fiber-optic cable and not copper cable would come straight to people's homes. In theory, Google would open their network to other service providers, effectively making it a public utility. Stay tuned to WISC-TV and Channel 3000 for continuing coverage. On Mon, Feb 15, 2010 at 11:58 AM, Dr. Ernie Prabhakar <[email protected]> wrote: > But the point for Google isn't to go head to head with the broadband > services already offered by AT&T, Comcast and other phone and cable TV > companies. It's to apply not-so-subtle pressure on them to do more. > > This seems to be a common pattern at Google, to do high-profile projects to > shake things up so that *others* have to make major investments. > Still trying to figure out if that is brilliant or lame... > -- Ernie P. > On Feb 15, 2010, at 9:55 AM, [email protected] wrote: > > > LATimes Feb 15, 2010 > EDITORIAL > > Google's broadband venture > > If Google sparks a race to the top among broadband providers, it will hardly > be the only one to benefit. > > > Google's plan to build an ultra-fast broadband service is so appealing, it > defies credulity. The speed -- 1 gigabit per second -- is about 200 times > faster than the fastest connections available in the U.S. today. Alas, for > the vast majority of Internet users, Google's gambit is is too good to be > true. The new fiber-optic lines will be deployed in only a handful of > communities, reaching no more than half a million people. But the point for > Google isn't to go head to head with the broadband services already offered > by AT&T, Comcast and other phone and cable TV companies. It's to apply > not-so-subtle pressure on them to do more. > > It's no accident that Google unveiled its fiber-optic vision while the > Federal Communications Commission is developing a National Broadband Plan, > which will set goals for Internet access services in the United States -- > including the amount of bandwidth they should provide. A major impediment to > improving this country's comparatively pokey broadband networks is the cost > of deploying more fiber optics, but Google's engineers evidently believe > they can build a network at significantly less expense than the current > state of the art. If so, the Google demonstration project would provide a > blueprint for Internet providers to follow. > > Phone and cable companies already have developed technologies that are > capable of delivering far faster Internet connections than they offer > customers. But they devote the vast majority of that bandwidth to lucrative > pay-TV services, not to less-pricey Internet access. And they have little > incentive to change that ratio, especially not if they would be helping free > online video services undercut the demand for pay television. > > Nevertheless, faster broadband services would offer far greater value to the > public than 700 channels of news, sports and entertainment. Each quantum > leap in connectivity has led to a significant transformation -- the dial-up > Internet launched global e-commerce; wired broadband enabled "cloud > computing" and promoted the digitalization of information and entertainment; > mobile broadband networks bring the world's resources to people's > fingertips. > > Google's gigabit test bed enables innovators to show the public what the > next leap in bandwidth could bring to education, medicine and who knows what > other segments of the economy. > > Internet providers often grumble about Google freeloading on the investments > they've made -- its YouTube subsidiary and its Web-based mail and > productivity services all reach their customers through other companies' > broadband pipes. So Google's latest project is by no means altruistic. On > the other hand, if Google sparks a race to the top among broadband > providers, it will hardly be the only one to benefit. > _______________________________________________ > Centroids mailing list: [email protected] > http://radicalcentrism.com/mailman/listinfo/centroids_radicalcentrism.com > Archives at > http://radicalcentrism.org/pipermail/centroids_radicalcentrism.com/ > > _______________________________________________ > Centroids mailing list: [email protected] > http://radicalcentrism.com/mailman/listinfo/centroids_radicalcentrism.com > Archives at > http://radicalcentrism.org/pipermail/centroids_radicalcentrism.com/ > _______________________________________________ Centroids mailing list: [email protected] http://radicalcentrism.com/mailman/listinfo/centroids_radicalcentrism.com Archives at http://radicalcentrism.org/pipermail/centroids_radicalcentrism.com/
