Google is offering Kansas City residents a set-top box for their TVs (above) that allows the search giant to compete directly with cable companies over its own 1 Gbps fiber network. Photo: Google
After months of mystery, Kansas City residents learned today that the first high-speed citywide network built by Google will bring them not just super-fast Internet but full-featured cable-style TV service. Google said in a live announcement Thursday morning that the neighborhoods that rally the most interest will be the first to get hooked up to Google’s fiber-optic lines, which the company says will offer 1 gigabit-per-second downloads and uploads—far faster (Google says 100 times) than the typical broadband connections now in most U.S. homes.
The high speed means Google can compete directly with cable and satellite TV companies. For $120 per month for both TV and internet, residents will get a set-top box that Google says will deliver hundreds of HD channels and tens of thousands of on-demand movies and shows. The service even comes with Google’s Nexus 7 tablet, which will serve as the set-top box’s remote.
Kansas City, Kansas, and Kansas City, Missouri, together won out over 1,100 other cities to become the testbed for Google’s first big venture into building and owning the physical network consumers use to access the internet. The project, known as Google Fiber, looks like it will give Kansas Citians more leverage in negotiating their monthly cable bills. But beyond the city limits, cable companies and telecoms likely don’t have to worry just yet that the search giant will start spreading its broadband tentacles across the country.
Source: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/07/google-fiber-cable-companies/
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