In the morning news on May 31st, Beijing time, Milo Medin, Google ’s vice president of network access services, said at the “Fibre to the Home Committee†meeting in Kansas City on Wednesday that the Google Fiber Google Fiber) network is not just an experiment, it will become a profitable business for Google in the future.
Mading said: "We expect Google Fiber to bring profits, which is a good business." Since Google announced in 2010 that it will build a high-speed broadband network, many industry insiders speculate why Google is involved in this capital-intensive industry . Google's network in Kansas City has an upstream and downstream rate of 1Gbps, and it also bundles TV services. Google's move is considered an attempt to test new services and advertising models.
Other industry insiders believe that Google's move may be to promote cable operators and telecommunications operators to provide faster Internet services. The financially strong Google can easily bear this cost and record it as research and development expenses.
Project was born
Madin admitted that when the Google Fiber Project was first proposed, even Google did not believe that the business would be competitive. He said that this idea was born when Google discussed the US National Broadband Plan with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which was submitted to the US Congress in 2010. Then the Google Fiber Project was born. Google initially made the plan to build a 1Gbps broadband network public and see which cities are interested in participating in such network construction.
Madin said: "We think only a few cities will express interest, but eventually about 1,100 communities responded. No one thought it would be a real business at the time, but when we saw such interest , The situation has changed. "
Google does not want to build a broadband network similar to the existing network. In order to realize the promise of the "National Broadband Plan", Google hopes to increase the network speed and make the price more acceptable. Therefore, the speed of the broadband network built by Google reaches 100 times that of traditional broadband services, and the price is lower.
Although users currently do not need a broadband speed of 1Gbps around the clock, Madin believes that this will play a role in the future. He said: "We want to build a business for the next 10 years, not the past 10 years. I remember that people thought that the speed of 5Mbps will never be used, but now you can use this speed to play several streams. Media movies. "
Profit problem
So, how will Google Fiber be profitable, especially at lower prices?
Google did not disclose the financial details of the deployment of broadband networks in Kansas City. Mading said that the current cost of the Google fiber project has little impact on Google's overall financial situation, but he also talked about Google's future profit plan. Mai Ding believes that the key is to ensure that network deployment costs are as low as possible. Unlike other operators ’previous practices, Google did not apply to the government for any network construction subsidies, nor did it seek attractive tax breaks.
Google directly cooperates with the city government to make the network construction cost lower and take less time. Madin said: "It may be easy to ask for tax relief, but we hope the city government will do something more difficult." For example, Google requires Kansas City to send special inspectors for the Google Fiber Project, so the city ’s regular inspections can Completed quickly, which saved Google's time and money. In addition, Google also requires the use of the city ’s underground pipeline network, so there is no need for unnecessary road excavation. Google has also worked with municipal facilities companies to ensure that the newly constructed telephone poles leave room for fiber optic cables.
Mai Ding said: "City friendly to 1Gbps network will bring a lot of difference, and can bring great savings."
Another difference of Google Fiber is that Google only lays fiber optic cables for communities with high demand. In the past, operators would deploy large-scale networks throughout the city and then promote them to residents. In the Google Fiber Project, Google first consults the intentions of various communities, and only when certain conditions are met will network construction be carried out. Therefore, a certain community will immediately obtain a large number of users after the network construction is completed.
TV becomes the key
The Google Fiber Project also encountered many challenges in the process. The biggest headache for Google was the TV service. In the so-called "triple play" network, Google first decided not to provide telephone services. Because the cost of such a service is too high, it will not bring much value to the service. But Madin pointed out that TV services are necessary and very important for attracting home users.
Madin said: "TV services have become our stumbling block. But when promoting broadband services to home users, you cannot fail to provide competitive TV products." In this regard, the main problem facing Google is that it cannot To rebroadcast other companies ’TV programs, because the current TV services are not very good.
Therefore, Google needs to build its own system to provide TV programs through its IP fiber network. This means that Google needs to build a national video server and encode the video itself. In addition, Google also needs to develop home set-top boxes and other hardware to provide this service. These hardware include routers, set-top boxes, and storage / video recording devices with a storage capacity of 2TB, enabling simultaneous recording of 8 programs.
Google also needs to sign agreements with traditional TV service providers, which means a protracted legal process. However, Google has solved these problems, and the services currently provided include "normal" TV channels, as well as built-in "OTT TV services" such as Netflix and YouTube.
Future expansion
Google is very satisfied with the network built in Kansas City, so it is considering continuing to develop this business. Earlier this year, Google announced that it will soon develop Google's fiber optic business in other urban areas in Missouri and Kansas. Google subsequently announced two specific cities where Google Fiber will be built, namely Austin, Texas and Provo, Utah.
Madin did not mention the names of other cities that Google is about to enter this time, but he hinted that Google will consider other communities to develop business. He also said that only when conditions are right, Google will choose a city for network deployment. He said: "Generally speaking, we choose areas where network construction is easy. If network construction in a certain area is difficult for us, but it is easy in other areas, then we will go elsewhere.
Some participants asked why Google is not building such a network in California, where the headquarters is located. Madin did not respond directly. He said that Google hopes to provide employees and other California residents with a 1Gbps broadband network, but there are many challenges to network construction in California, and the cost of network construction is also very high. He hopes that some regulations will be changed, and the California government will be more friendly to the construction of fiber optic networks.
Easy Electronic Technology Co.,Ltd , https://www.nbpcelectronicgroup.com