Broadband Trader News

Google announced on Dec 15, 2010 that they will have delayed their decision on choosing which communities will be allowed to test its 1 Gbps broadband network product until early 2011. They stated the reason for this delay was they simply received too many applications.

Earlier in 2010 Google announced a plan to begin construction of a fiber-based network supporting Internet data transfer at speeds over 1 gigabit/sec. This is more than 100x the speed of most current residential broadband connections, which paves the way for a much more robust level of application delivery, especially in the gaming and video sectors.

Google plans to test the initial offering of this network for between 50,000 and 500,000 homes in the U.S. Google accepted bids from municipalities looking to test the offering, which triggered a frenzied response. Even government officials jumped into the action in an effort to garner Google’s attention. The bidding process was closed March 2010, but not before almost 200,000 individuals and over 1,100 municipalities applied.

Google stated the initial plan was to announce the winning applicant by the end of 2010, but with only a couple weeks left in the year, Google has not yet made their choice. “While we’re moving ahead full steam on this project, we’re not quite ready to make that announcement,” said Milo Medin, Google’s new VP of Internet Access Services. Medin went on to say, “We’re sorry for this delay, but we want to make sure we get this right.”

Currently, Google expects to make their selection early in 2011.

The update came about 2 months after Google and Stanford University agreed to a deal offering a broadband network supporting speeds of up to 1Gbps for approximately 850 homes occupied by faculty and staff. This project is slated to begin early in 2011.