Google's 1 Gigabit Fiber Experiment is a PR Bonanza

I was deeply skeptical of Google's recently announced 1 gigabit/second fiber-to-the home experiment, but I will concede this: it appears to be influencing the broadband Internet access discussion and is turning into a PR bonanza for the company. Consider 2 of the latest examples: Comcast, America's largest broadband ISP, announced this week that it would make 100 megabit/second speeds available to all customers within 12-18 months and the FCC's new broadband plan set a goal of 100 million U.S. homes having 100 mbps within 10 years and that all schools, hospitals and government building should have 1 gbps access - goals that seem influenced by Google's experiment.

Meanwhile, as my former colleague and astute industry watcher Bruce Leichtman pointed out to me this week, the press continues to lavish attention on Google's plan, giving it all kinds of free PR. Bloomberg BusinessWeek ran a long article praising the company's fiber plan as providing the impetus to other broadband ISPs to increase their speeds. And my hometown paper the Boston Globe ran a feature this week about the lengths to which towns across Massachusetts are going to be selected as one of the coveted few areas to have Google deploy its network. Though Google hasn't wired a single one of the 71.8 million U.S. homes that subscribed to broadband at the end of '09, you'd think from the goings-on that they were the dominant player driving the market. You gotta love how well the Google PR machine works.

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Categories: Broadband ISPs

Topics: Comcast, FCC, Google