14 DAY TRIAL // Google is finally giving an update on its plans to bring fiber-to-home connections to at least 50,000 Americans. Unfortunately, the update is only announcing a delay in the process as Google is not yeat ready to name the communities where the project will roll out first.
The plan was to make the announcement by the end of the year, but Google says it needs more time to make sure it makes the right decision and that the announcement should now be expected until sometime in early 2011.
"We had planned to announce our selected community or communities by the end of this year, but the level of interest was incredible—nearly 1,100 communities across the country responded to our announcement—and exceeded our expectations. While we’re moving ahead full Steam on this project, we’re not quite ready to make that announcement," Milo Medin, Google's new Vice President of Access Services, wrote.
While Google is not making an announcement just yet, it is making progress on the project, it claims. That's at least partially backed by the fact that it just hired a VP of Access Services, aka the fiber-to-home project.
"This week I joined Google as vice president of Access Services to oversee the Google Fiber team. Over the past several months I’ve been following the progress the team has already made—from experimenting with new fiber deployment technologies here on Google’s campus, to announcing a 'beta' network to 850 homes at Stanford," Medin says.
Early this year, Google announced bold plans to bring 1 Gbps fiber-to-home connections to at least 50,000 people and as many as 500,000. It asked for applications from communities eager to be part of the experiment.
The response was pretty big, with some communities going to extremes to get Google's attention, from renaming their city 'Google' to swimming with sharks and in icy waters. But the stunts didn't make Google's job easier and it says it's having a harder time than anticipated picking the perfect spots to start building.