by Dan Berra- VP of Business Intelligence
February 24, 2010
Recently Google announced that it was going to deploy their own fiber optic network to a "small number of trial locations". The network will bring 1 gigabit speeds to your doorstep which is a huge improvement in speed from even the highest grade of service from the cable or phone companies.
So what is the mighty Google up to? Some say no good and that they will now be able to mine the data from any home that it has wired and see any website you visit. This is true they could and probably will do this, so could our current ISPs but my guess is that Google has the infrastructure and capital to pull it off. Can you imagine the amount of data?
Others are cheering the competition to the cable and phone companies and that it will make them "up their game". I see that, and a little healthy competition is a good thing.
I also see Google or anyone else who brings this type of speed to your home creating a game changing event for how we consume all media. The potential for streaming video content will be incredible. I currently have hundreds of channels at home to choose from but I would bet if you looked at what I actually consume, it is less than 10% of those channels. If Google goes for wide adoption of this service, we can move to a streaming model where content providers create a subscription service that streams the shows/content you want to you and eliminates the 90% you don't use. Just simply subscribe to Mad Men, The Office, Family Guy and those shows stream to you in their normal time slot and then are stored on your computer as part of your subscription. Different levels of service will likely dictate the amount of ads you receive and whether you watch the content through a custom player or if you get the actual file. Advertisers will get more freedom to create highly interactive ads in these environments because bandwidth no longer becomes an issue. Live sporting events present a problem but you can pick those up with an HD antenna for less than $100 one time, not every month.
I am not worried about Google moving into this space but I think the cable companies should be.