Google has long touted that it was developing its own fiber network to launch across the United States. It’s a service that has been in the works and has finally become ready to enter the beta stage that all Google products and services go through. Today makes the day that Google Fiber has finally launched in Kansas City giving them the option of ridiculous Internet speeds AND a new television service that was not in the initial announcement when Kansas City has been announced as the demo city.
How ridiculous of speeds are we talking about here? Well Google Fiber is providing 1,000 Mbps for both download and upload speeds. Let that sink in for a moment.
Google’s Fiber Service
Google Fiber gives consumers a new choice in broadband service and if everything from the release is to be believed the BEST POSSIBLE broadband service to date. Bandwidth is expensive these days and every service is starting to instate soft or hard caps on their services. Google is looking to change that. Google’s service is going to have no monthly bandwidth caps which means no overages to be charged for “using too much data.”
That alone is worth the win but let’s talk about the speed of it shall we? 1,000 Mbps on both uploads and downloads. No broadband service that is national is offering that at affordable rates and this is falling into $70/month which many providers charge the same amount for their premium services (which are MUCH lower speeds AND include data caps.)
A bit of a bonus though is that it is also providing 1 TB of cloud storage through Google Drive giving you a vast amount of virtual storage space that you can access from any computer you have your Google account linked up to.
Google’s Television Service
I feel like a late night infomercial salesmen by stating “but wait.. there’s more!”
There is more though. Google is also bringing us Fiber TV as part of their service. It’s a new setup for how you view your television. It brings the interface to you as a part DVR, part cable box combination. The platform also allows for storage of 500 hours of television and lets you record eight shows at the same time which few other services can even think about touching.
Pricing? While not all of the pricing terms are available yet the breakdown does have different levels from basic channels to having premium channels as well. It looks like Fiber TV when combined with the data plan is $120/month and a $300 construction fee (which is waived with a two year contract.)
With Google trying to keep everything connected by it’s standard 1 login for everything it also is having apps for its Fiber TV for your phone. Android and iPhone lovers will be able to completely search their televisions and control them through their phone. If that’s not enough for you though anyone purchasing the TV package will also get a Nexus 7 which they can also use for a super remote to end all other remotes.
Love being Social? Google has thought of that too. Fiber TV will integrate with all of the major social networks.
Related Link: The Verge.
