Google has announced it is talking to officials in 34 different cities in nine US markets to determine whether it can expand its broadband Internet service. Google Fiber fiber-optic networks are now in Kansas City, Mo.; Austin, Texas; and Provo, Utah. The company is in discussions with officials in Portland, Ore.; San Jose, Calif.; Salt Lake City; Phoenix; San Antonio; Nashville, Tenn.; Atlanta; as well as Charlotte and Raleigh/Durham, N.C. Several states have or are considering legislation that would limit public broadband infrastructure growth following intensive lobbying by phone and cable TV company interests. Google Fiber reportedly is able to provide transmission speeds of 1 gigabit per second, which is 20 times faster than the 50 mbps top-end service sold by Verizon Communications and Comcast. Google says it should know by year’s end which areas might be actually receiving Google Fiber. “While we do want to bring Fiber to every one of these cities,” writes Milo Medin, vice president of Google Access Services, “it might not work out for everyone.” (Investor’s Business Daily)(USA Today)(Google Official Blog)
Monday, March 17, 2014
Google Exploring Expanding Fiber to More US Markets
Friday, March 14, 2014
Mozilla Provides Gigabit Fiber Grants
The Mozilla Foundation is supporting high-speed Internet access by awarding grants to development projects taking advantage of existing fiber infrastructure that offers data rates of at least 1 Gbit per second. The organization is giving $300,000 in grants of between $5,000 and $30,000 each to software projects based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Kansas City, Kansas, via the Mozilla Gigabit Community Fund. The fund is also backed by the US National Science Foundation and US Ignite, an organization that fosters the creation of next-generation Internet applications. Grant recipients must be working on real-life open source applications for gigabit networks that they want to turn into viable pilot projects. Successful projects are expected to support education, learning and/or workforce development in the community. (WIRED)(Mozilla)(National Science Foundation)(Mozilla Gigabit Community Fund)