As long as you're not making any money out of that

Oct 16, 2013 10:21 GMT  ·  By

Google labels Fiber as the next-generation Internet service. It's not just the whopping 1Gbps that is better than anything else around it, it's also the smaller details like free Wi-Fi when you're out in the city and generally a better service.

However, Google didn't stray too far away from the regular ISPs when it implemented a no-home server policy. The service's terms specified that users were prohibited from running servers via their Fiber connection.

That's boilerplate text in most consumer ISP contracts, and it makes sense; a server could use a disproportionate amount of bandwidth in time, degrading the service for everyone else. What's more, ISPs want people to sign up for enterprise-grade connections.

Still, it didn't jibe with the whole "startup" culture Google Fiber was trying to instill. After all, the search giant said that one of its big hopes with Fiber was that it would encourage new services and products that could only work on such high-speed connections.

Google Fiber has now updated its terms of service with some less restrictive wording. Commercial servers are still verboten, but most other uses are OK.

"Personal, non-commercial use of servers that complies with this AUP [acceptable use policy] is acceptable, including using virtual private networks (VPN) to access services in your home and using hardware or applications that include server capabilities for uses like multi-player gaming, video-conferencing, and home security," Google explains.

Essentially, if you're making money from the servers you host, you can't use Fiber. This is particularly annoying as the Mountain View-based company doesn't offer any subscription plans for businesses. The company did say that it was working on something for small businesses, but it doesn't have anything to announce at the moment. Google wanted to focus on home users and home users alone at first and it's still sticking to that.