Milo Medin of Google:
It’s easy to forget how revolutionary high-speed Internet access was in the 1990s. Not only did broadband kill the screeching sound of dial-up, it also spurred innovation, helping to create amazing new services as well as new job opportunities for many thousands of Americans. But today the Internet is not as fast as it should be. While high speed technology exists, the average Internet speed in the U.S. is still only 5.8 megabits per second (Mbps)—slightly faster than the maximum speed available 16 years ago when residential broadband was first introduced.
Google has just started offering Kansas City residents their Fiber service with 1,000 Mbps download and upload speeds. Yes, you read that correctly.
And: no bandwidth caps. Boom.
It’s $70-per-month, which is about what I pay Comcast for my shitty 10 Mbps service (which it never actually hits — and has a cap). Google also includes 1 TB of storage with this fee (via Google Drive).
Or you can pay $120-per-month and get TV service as well. With a 2 TB DVR. And a Nexus 7 to control the set top box.
If you’re not ready for Gigabit Internet, you can settle for 5 Mbps service. Why the hell would you do that? Well, it’s free (with a one-time set up fee). Yep, Google is giving away the service I pay Comcast an obscene amount of money for.
Amazing. Bravo, Google. Now please bring this everywhere in the U.S. and force the cable companies to get busy innovating or get busy dying.
Holy shit!
I look forward to sometime around 2040 when my area will have speeds like these.
