Google Fiber Could Revolutionize Internet and TV Service

In its latest effort to make our lives more awesome, Google is gearing up to premier its crazy-fast Fiber service, starting with a trial market in Kansas City. The service comes without monthly bandwidth caps or overages, and paid plans come bundled with 1TB of Google Drive cloud storage.

The promotional video for Google Fiber’s KC debut points to average USA broadband speeds as a bottleneck in users’ experience of the web.

Just as the last few years have seen huge expansions in processor speed and storage capacity, Google proposes to multiply home internet connection speeds by 100. “Fiber offers up to 1,000 Mb/sec download and upload,” Google’s “About” page explains. So just to be clear, that means users will be able to download (or upload) any file up to a gigabyte in a second or less.

Google is offering three plans for pre-registration.

Anyone who pays a one-time $300 fee (to cover home fiber-line construction) can have US-average broadband speeds free, guaranteed for at least seven years.

For $70 per month, users can upgrade to gigabit service. That’s the whole monthly price—no introductory rates that double after six months—and that includes the wifi-equipped Network Box. Google will even throw in 1TB of Google Drive cloud storage. Oh, and a two-year contract waives that $300 setup fee.

For $120 per month you get the “whole Google experience.” Again, the network box and 1TB on Google Drive come bundled; and a two-year contract still waives the fiber construction fee. But that $120/mo. will net you all this other stuff too:

• A TV Box with “hundreds” of basic fiber channels (click here for the full list) to replace your cable service (Premium channels will be available as add-ons.)


• On-demand movies and TV shows, plus out-of-the-box support for Netflix & Youtube.


• A networked 2TB DVR “Storage Box” (That’s enough space for 500 hours of HD programming, and the TV Box can record up to 8 programs at a time.)


• A totally free Nexus 7 tablet—your remote control for the TV box.

Residents in high-demand neighborhoods on both sides of the Kansas-Missourri border have 45 days to pre-register here. The rest of us will have to wait a while longer, although Google will all but certainly expand its fiber network to high-demand urban areas first. The packages listed above are residential only; business prices have yet to be announced. Would you ditch your current service for one of Google's Fiber plans? Let us know in the comments.

Source : ign[dot]com