Google's much-awaited fiber networking project, "Google Fiber" has finally started to function on Tuesday in Kansas City, connecting people to a never-before experience of ultra high-speed fiber-to-the-home one gigabit Internet service.
Kansas City was selected as the test bed for Google's ultra-high-speed municipal broadband project in March 2011. More than 1,100 communities applied after the call for applicants.
"As we build out Google Fiber, we'll be taking thousands of miles of cables and stretching them across Kansas City, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri," Kevin Lo, General Manager, Google Access wrote in the company's official blog as the internet giant began its ground work after extensive studying and surveying of maps and neighborhoods. "Each cable contains many thin glass fibers, each about the width of a human hair. We'll be taking these cables and weaving them into a fiber backbone-a completely new high speed infrastructure that will ultimately be carrying Kansas Citians' data at speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have today."
Google representatives are going door-by-door to update people that it's implementing the service and how the installation will work.
"We've been working in a few homes over the last few weeks to make sure we can deliver a great experience, and along the way we've thought a lot about what 'great' might mean," Alana Karen, Director, Service Delivery, Google Fiber wrote in a blog post. "We want it to take the amount of time we (and you!) think it's going to take. We want to be able to explain what we're doing in easy to understand language, so it makes sense to you and it's not just tech jargon! And of course we're aiming for "one and done"-one visit, everything working when we leave your home."
The process of laying the fiber, which is very thin, is quite different from the usual system. Google installs a device which can accept outside fiber lines and convert the data into something that the user's computer can understand. The 1-gigabit-per-second service will cost customers $70 per month, which is remarkably cheaper and faster than any other broadband services. It also offers 1 terabyte of Google Drive storage and the service is available for a $300 installation fee to households. Going for Fiber TV service, the total cost would reach up to $120. The Google Fiber Network Box is capable of outputting at 802.11n Wi-Fi speeds up to 360Mbps.
