Google ISP

[Ant_]

Internet behemoth Google now boasts a network that's bigger than all but two of the world's ISPs and telcos fear the search giant is just one step away from becoming an ISP itself.

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/enterprise/google-could-be-your-next-isp-20100318-qgtr.html

 

[Rod Stroker]

I reckon this is huge news, a potential game changer.

Some of the reader comments are interesting;
I love the naivety of people who want Google to come here and just build a fiber network. They obviously don't realise that you need a license, and the government decided that none of the potential NBN bidders were fit to be granted a license to build the network, so they called off the tender and decided they were best positioned to build it themselves, rightly or wrongly.
Google certainly has the money and the experience in active network equipment, but to my knowledge they've never built a greenfield nationwide fiber network, where 80% of the spend and effort is in the passive network fiber in the ground, and not the 20% active network equipment sitting in central offices, data centers and switch rooms.

The other interesting comment is about international trunks. Yes, at the moment with current networks, the problem is not the last mile or on-shore connectivity. The bottle neck is in the international trunks when fetching data and content from overseas. And that won't change with an NBN fiber network unless those international trunks are opened up.
However, with a Google owned fiber network, they already own a lot of content, so a lot of the data you would normally fetch would be on-shore in their servers, so the need to use international trunks would be reduced.

 

[Artie Bucco]

With a wealth of infrastructure already in place, Google recently announced it was taking the next step by building an experimental fibre-to-the-home network in parts of the US servicing initially between 50,000 and 500,000 homes.

That quote is very interesting.

I remember reading that a couple of weeks ago, it's a bit of a double edged sword imo.

Firstly it's brilliant, I love Google and what they do for the internet community and developers. If they can provide a better service then hey why not. On the same note if they do become a large enough ISP (which if the trial is successful they will) it leaves them:

• In a position to harvest an absolutely ridiculous amount of data that they could use for an abundance of applications. On top of what they already track.
• Essentially in a position to control the internet for many many people.

They currently control

• most of the worlds search on the internet and have the #1 traffic (facebook recently overtook them but they do not have toolbars embedded on most browsers)
• Huge amount of advertising on the net (adwords / adsense)
• Analytical software
• Maps, local geo search for businesses (essentially killing the yellow pages, lucky for them they have a partnership for local search)
• Email
• blogging platform
• google docs
• youtube
• software for mobile phones
• web browser
• picassa
• plus heaps more that I've forgotten or don't know about

So far their track record has been pretty good and their motto after all is 'not to do evil' but is it safe for one company to have so much power? The power to abuse is always there. Very interesting times ahead.

 

[YOTC]

I'd rather google have the power than the power Telstra has in Australia.

 

[Ant_]

I'd rather google have the power than the power Telstra has in Australia.

Good point

 

[Artie Bucco]

I'd rather google have the power than the power Telstra has in Australia.

That is my point, look where that has left us

Very interesting times ahead anyway.