A few weeks ago, I mentioned how Google was working to develop ultrahigh-speed Internet access in a few test communities, which they would then hopefully expand to the whole country. It was quite the pitch, and with the proposed 1-gigabit-per-second connection, it seemed attainable. But according to the Wall Street Journal, this huge undertaking has been hitting a few speedbumps.
While Google has had no trouble finding communities to be their 1-gigabit guinea pigs, the logistics involved to pull off the construction are a bit overwhelming. New fiber optic cables have to be put in place, which means roads will have to be torn up. It’s a massive infrastructure that is apparently proving to be more of an obstacle than Google originally had hoped.
And even if Google does get the infrastructure up and running, there is still the issue of what the super fast connection will actually be able to accomplish. There simply aren’t a lot of online services that require 1-Gb speed. And unfortuntely, it wouldn’t necessarily make all existing services faster, because online traffic can only travel as fast as the slowest link its path.
This means that until 1-Gb connection speed becomes more widespread, streaming a YouTube video on 1-Gb won’t be much faster than it would be on a 200-Mb connection.
But Google’s ultrahigh-speed ship hasn’t sunk quite yet. That’s because Cisco recently announced they are testing Cisco CRS-3, which is a routing system they say is so fast it will allow people to download every movie ever made in 5 minutes.
This is actually good news for Google, because it means more focus and attention will be placed on ultrahigh-speed Internet. This should increase the demand for connection speeds that fast, which in turn means more initiative will be taken to make ultra-high speed Internet a reality. However, until that happens, Google’s Internet innovation may continue to just be an ultrahigh-speed headache.