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.
