The Future is Google Fiber!
At first it was the search engine that changed the way we source our information forever. Then it was Google Glass; the optical head-mounted display system that will soon be the first way we will choose to access loved ones and our social networks. As if Google hadn’t already changed our lives, here comes Google Fiber. (Photo: Google)
By Scott Edwards
Fiber is the revolutionary Internet Service Provider (ISP) that will have the capability of delivering up to 1,000 mbps (mega bites per second). Put into contrast with our regular choices of ISP that deliver just 10 to 50 mbps, you can imagine how lightning-fast the future of surfing the internet will be.
Google described Fiber as the ISP that will be ‘ready when you are’. Accessing YouTube, Netfilx and other video streaming based apps will no longer need buffering as Fiber will abolish any waiting time instantly. Even downloading will be 100 times faster than current broadband speed. A test undergone on Fiber’s website shows that in comparison to a 10 mbps connection, a full HD movie download will take just 7 seconds using Google Fiber, whereas the same movie would take over 7 minutes to download on a standard 10 mbps that many households currently have.
Fiber will also allow crystal clear High Definition programmes to be shown at their true potential. With such a huge bandwidth allocation, it will take seconds for a HD show or film to render itself into its highest output of quality. Along with that, Fiber customers also get the option to have Google Fiber TV and DVR. With a 2 terabyte storage capability, you can record up to eight programmes at once and never have to worry about running out of storage. And if you have an iOS or Android device, you will no longer have to search for the remote every again, as the Google Fiber TV app allows you to turn your mobile phone or tablet instantly into a remote control and search device.
You would be forgiven for thinking that the latest piece of tech would break the bank, as most revolutionary technologies usually are. However in test sites across America, the Fiber guinea pigs will be paying just $70 (which equates £41) per month for the standard 1,000 mbps internet connection, and $120 (£70) per month with Google Fiber TV. Not much more than what many would pay for landline and broadband packages now.
But as ground-breaking speed goes, a competitor won’t be too far behind in attempting to match what would otherwise indefinitely be the future of the internet.
Bell Laboratories, a part of American mobile service giant AT&T, recently beat Google Fiber’s speed by 10 times, producing 10 gigabit’s per second, just using conventional technologies already used by ISP’s like Virgin Media and Sky. They call it XG-Fast, and say it is faster connection would save expensive efforts to construct and install Google Fiber hubs up and down America and eventually the world, by just using the conventional methods of broadband already in place.
As mouth-watering as XG-Fast sounds, the future still looks in favour of Google Fiber. XG-Fast was generated in the technical labs of Bell Laboratories. This means the likelihood of 10 gigabits flowing into our homes any time soon is nil, whereas Fiber looks as good as gold to take off soon in America, and eventually reach us here in the UK.
