14 DAY TRIAL // Google made quite a lot of headlines when it announced that it would be deploying 1 Gbps internet connections in several lucky cities. The project, dubbed Google Fiber, is moving along. Google had already announced several of the locations where it will start deploying the actual fiber optics connections and some lucky people have already wired up to the Google network.
The few that have managed to do so are now boasting about their ultra-fast connection with speed test screenshots showing seemingly incredible speeds, 152 Mbps downloads and 93 Mbps uploads.
Granted, Google advertised a gigabit network, aka 1,000 Mbps, but the project is very much in the early stages.
Google has only started deploying its network in Standford, in California, and only a few people have had a chance to sign up and get the service installed yet, so things will definitely change in time.
The deployment in Standford is more of a trial run before Google starts its first big step in Kansas City, the place selected for the first Google gigabit fiber network.
Less than 1,000 people are expected to get linked up in Standford and it serves a testing ground for new technologies and methodologies, which Google plans to deploy and develop to bring down the cost of really fast internet connections.
Still, the ones that do manage to get wired up are in for a treat. They can choose to either pay $250 for a professional install or as little as $50 for an install kit, for the do it yourself crowd.
For this one time fee, subscribers get one year of free access. Google hasn't decided on the pricing after that, but it's still a great bargain.
Considering the state of wired internet access in the US, Google can't move fast enough to show people that faster speeds are quite possible, without paying an arm and a leg, without having your BitTorrent downloads slowed down and without having ridiculously small data caps.