Google is on a mission to update the web’s wiring, and they’re not talking a decade or more to do it. The firm’s CFO, Patrick Pichette, recently said his firm is working to boost internet speeds a thousand fold in the next three years. “That’s where the world is going. It’s going to happen.”
The project is called Google Fiber and, though it’s in just three cities so far, an additional 34 cities in nine metro areas may be approved for Fiber by yearend.
Most internet connections in the US travel copper wires, but as the name implies, Google Fiber achieves blistering speeds on fiber optic cable.
Information travels over fiber optics at about the speed of light with comparatively little degradation. Laser pulses send digital information along the cable, and by varying the frequency of the laser (i.e., its color), multiple signals can be sent simultaneously.
In the last year or so, Google’s been laying fiber in select US cities, Kansas City, Austin, and Provo, UT, choosing each based on ease of installation and local government cooperation. Current speeds are a hundred times the average connection on copper wires.