Google plans to build an ultra-high speed, fiber-based broadband network on California’s Stanford University campus. Internet speeds are expected to hit a blazing 1 gigabit per second – more than 100 times faster than what most people have access to today.
The network will cover the university’s Residential Subdivision, a group of approximately 850 faculty- and staff-owned homes on university grounds.
“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,” explained Google product manager James Kelly.
“[However], the [Stanford] trial is completely separate from our community selection process for Google Fiber, which is still ongoing. [Of course], our first ‘beta’ deployment to real customers will be a key step towards [meeting] that goal.”
According to Kelly, Google will use the Stanford deployment to learn how to more effectively scale future fiber network installations in larger communities.
“Why did we decide to build here? Most important was Stanford’s openness to us experimenting with new fiber technologies on its streets.
“The layout of the residential neighborhoods and small number of homes make it a good fit for a beta deployment. And its location, just a few miles up the road from Google, will make it easier for our engineers to monitor progress,” he added.
