Google To Build A Test 1 Gbps Network in Stanford

Google still hasn’t made a decision on which city (or communities) it would pick to build its one-gigabit-per-second broadband network (announced earlier this year), but the company is moving forward and setting up an experimental network on the Stanford University Campus. Nearly 850 members of the “residential subdivision” are going to get access to this superfast network, which will begin deployment next year. This network will be used to try out some of the technologies that Google has been experimenting with.

To be clear, this trial is completely separate from our community selection process for Google Fiber, which is still ongoing. As we’ve said, our ultimate goal is to build to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people, and we still plan to announce our selected community or communities by the end of the year.

Stanford’s Residential Subdivision—our first “beta” deployment to real customers—will be a key step towards that goal. The layout of the residential neighborhoods and small number of homes make it a good fit for a beta deployment. (Google Blog)

Well, lucky for the residents of this community. I am fairly happy with my 100 Mbps connection!

Related content on GigaOM Pro (subscription required):

  • Apple’s Path to the Living Room
  • Mobile operators strategies for Connected Devices
  • Who will benefit from Broadband innovation?


WatchMouse Transaction Monitoring: Set up a public web status page in six minutes!


GigaOM