If Google’s announcement today that it plans to “enter the fiber business” or “take on ISPs” — as many news outlets hyperbolically reported — had a familiar ring to it, it should.
The search giant’s move today to announce plans to build a test high-speed fiber-to-the-home network is right in line with earlier efforts to build an experimental wifi network. That wireless move was accompanied by expressed interest — or threats, depending on how you look at it — to take the next step and purchase then-at-auction 700 Mhz spectrum to build its own wireless infrastructure, as well as loud debate about how such a network would, and should, be open to all types of content and services.
As it turned out, Google never did get into the wireless network business. Not a big surprise if you run a network — which is a tough, capital-intensive industry nothing like Google’s core advertising, software and media businesses. But there’s no doubt Google’s prodding on the network front (and to be fair, it’s development and release of the Android operating system too) helped to lead to today’s much more “open” and competitive wireless market, even if only indirectly.
Without Google’s championing of open mobile, it’s unlikely the mobile ecosystem would look like it does today.
Which leads us to today’s fiber-to-the-home announcement.
It’s important to note that it didn’t announce firm deployment plans. Rather the news was the opening of a process by which it will engage with communities to look for a volunteer to serve as the test bed for what it claims will be a “1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home network. Google said it plans to use the network to “offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people.”
Google said it planned to use the network to test next-generation application, new network deployment techniques and concepts of “openness and choice,” saying it will run the network as an open access facility with users able to choose from multiple service providers. “We’ll manage our network in an open, non-discriminatory and transparent way,” Google said.
By dropping concepts like open access (with its hint of net neutrality) and plainly mentioning the government’s upcoming National Broadband Plan, the fiber network — like its wireless plans before it — smell more like lobbying and public relations that product-building.
Which of course is fair, and according to some analysts perhaps even more powerful than a full-fledged entry into the telecom service provider business.
“Google has the market clout and bankroll to be taken seriously, and so there will be a white-hot spotlight shining on Google’s action,” said Craig Settles, broadband consultant and president of Successful.com. Settles is active in stimulus funding, broadband planning and other areas impacted by Google’s move. “I’m not sure Google will be an actual service provider beyond some initial pilot projects. But they can provide investments and business partnerships, and have those entities be the actual builders and service providers. And frankly, I think this is best because you don’t want your content provider and your access provider to be one and the same. This is what leads to monopoly and duopoly strangleholds on markets, and it is the essence of why many of us are fighting for net neutrality.”
In particular, Settles said it was smart for Google to take its effort into local communities. “It’s outstanding that they opened this gambit by going directly to city, county and state governments to have them define broadband needs,” he said. “These are the entities that represent both the consumers and the businesses that directly own the lack-of-broadband problem.”
To get its fiber network started, Google put out an RFI to local communities on its plans as well as the video below.
This is perfect timing and good news for every American for Google to champion 1 Gbs FTTH services to every home in America. It will definitely bring about profound changes in not just our economy but also all aspects of our lives. I would humbly recommend Google to work closely with both the FTTH industry association of The FTTH Council and selected local communities thru local/municipality governments to roll out your planned experimental fiber networks in strategic locations to test out all proposed/planned services/devices and all necessary logistics to establish a proven cost-effective network node or model for future expansion into an interconnected national and eventually a global 1 Gbs FTTH network. Go for it, Google, you have my vote of confidence. Silas
Google is the latter day equivalent of J.P. Morgan — When they speak, they move markets and roil the status quo. Whether or not Google becomes a commercial supplier of high-speed Internet services is irrelevant. The possibility that they might do so is sufficient to strike a healthy bit of fear into the hearts of slow-moving, entrenched local carriers, and get them moving in the right direction.
Arguably, Google’s Smart Metering debut last Fall had a similar impact on the energy utility sector. And even in the realm of global politics, Google has shown it’s not afraid to take on any challenge: Who doesn’t love Google for smacking China in the chops for undertaking cyber attacks aimed at revealing data on Chinese dissidents?
Granted, Google itself is no saint. Some might argue that Google’s intervention in monopoly-controlled environments is a clever ruse to distract attention from its own dominance in the search engine arena. That may well be, but if Google can shake loose the local broadband bottleneck, more power to ‘em!
In order for Google to fulfill its goal to offer true network neutrality and network speeds up to 1 Gbps, it is critical that they carefully consider their technology choice. Selecting a technology that is fully standardized will enable them to offer a true neutral open system. We have seen many municipalities over the past 10 years succeed in offering its residents this type of network using Active Ethernet.
There are important advantages for municipalities to deploy a high-speed FTTH network. Municipalities like Grant and Mason counties in Washington decided to use Active Ethernet when they built their network several years ago. As a result they have seen an increase in the number of small businesses and home-based businesses, larger businesses establishing facilities in the area (Microsoft, Ask Jeeves, Intuit, Sims, trucking companies and online engineering firms), as well as an improvement in the efficiency of local city administration. These deployments have been well documented by the FTTH Council and are proving to be not only profitable but also beneficial to the community.
I hope that the Google activity will in fact serve as lobbying activity in the 14 states which have limited or banned this activity by city government. Incumbent telephone companies are reluctant to invest in upgrading their networks, so it is only through competition that we can hope to achieve open access and improve the lives of every citizen.
If we should go back to the Communication Act of 1996,which brought an end to the monopoly that Bell telephone had and the introduction of competive local exchange carriers(CLEC),Google’s goal may be bordering on a similar thing.But this may be on a
larger scale that will affect all service providers of video,voice and data.Much the same as Vonage entry into the phone business by piggy backing of a DSL or cable modem,using a video adapter that is IP based,any ordinary Joe Six Pack can become an ISP.However,this will only happened if a similar Act like the one passed in 1996 goe through Congress.
Ten years ago in the city of Philadelphia, a company called Popvision offered over the air microwave signals to homes.The signal was line-of sight to a dipole antenna,which was connected to coaxial cable to a set-top box.For the most part, Popvision was a worthy challenger to the then incumbent cable provider.But like most microwave signals,inclement weather condition had an adverse effect on service delivery.
In England,and many European countries, video subscription service is provided by local multipoint distribution service(LMDS).With WiMax and its close cousin,LTE, any one who has the capital can be an ISP or LMDS.Unlike the technology used by Popvision, WiMax can be point-to-point,point-to multi-point,and even omnidirectional.In essence, TV viewing will return to its roots,an antenna.
As most people know, Japan has gigabit connections in most homes. If Google did roll out a fiber in the home product in could very likely prod other ISP’s to do so as well. Sometimes a little bit of good healthy competition is what the market needs to create a new standard and raise the bar.