Google Fiber begins trialing 20 Gig residential internet with Wi-Fi 7 routers

[Daniel Sims]

What just happened? Google has tested 20 Gig internet internally and with institutions for at least a year. The next phase coming from the company's innovation incubator is a trial with select residential users, just as tech companies begin to launch the first Wi-Fi 7 routers.

Google will begin offering 20 Gig internet to some Google Fiber customers in select areas before the end of the year. The company didn't specify which locations will receive the trial, but those interested can apply and check availability on the website for GFiber Labs, Google's innovation incubator. More details will emerge in the coming weeks.

To help them reach the blazing advertised speed, the company will send chosen applicants its new custom Wi-Fi 7 router. Google credits Nokia's 25G PON technology with enabling 20 Gig internet by bringing users beyond the so-called 10 Gig barrier.

Initial 20 Gig testing began last year at the Kansas City University of Missouri's School of Science and Engineering, which used the massive bandwidth to operate large data sets and virtual reality applications. In May of this year, Google opened the trial to certain businesses, educational institutions, and non-profits in Raleigh-Durham, Huntsville, Salt Lake City, and Austin.

The company unveiled the GFiber Labs innovation hub late last month to run the 20 Gig tests and push further. Google hopes to eventually reach 100 Gig and possibly beyond.

Google Fiber is only available in a few areas throughout the US, but those locations have access to extremely fast (though not 20 Gig) internet. The search giant offers 8 Gig connections in parts of West Des Moines for $150 a month and a $125 5 Gig service throughout that city, Kansas City, and Salt Lake City.

A critical part of the 20 Gig push, Wi-Fi 7 routers have only recently hit the market. The official standards for the new protocol won't be finalized until next year, but a few companies, including Google, are releasing pre-certification models.

One of the first Wi-Fi 7 routers came from TP-Link late last year. Asus revealed a Wi-Fi 7 gaming router at Gamescom in August, and Amazon launched a Wi-Fi 7 successor to its Eero series last month. Linksys introduced its first Wi-Fi 7 mesh router this week.

These devices are mostly for future-proofing, as, understandably, few devices currently support Wi-Fi 7. Intel predicts that compatible PCs will become more common next year in time for the final specifications.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/100640-google-fiber-begins-trialing-20-gig-residential-internet.html

 

[FaTaL]

People using for home use do not need that type of juice unless youre hosting the neighborhood pr0n ring or you have 10 kids in the house all whoring the bandwidth...
Most servers for gaming/apps/etc... have a bandwidth ceiling.... and its a hellva lot smaller than this..

 

[VaRmeNsI]

People using for home use do not need that type of juice unless youre hosting the neighborhood pr0n ring or you have 10 kids in the house all whoring the bandwidth...
Most servers for gaming/apps/etc... have a bandwidth ceiling.... and its a hellva lot smaller than this..

How do you know this? Have you been and spoken to the residents?

 

[Theinsanegamer]

How do you know this? Have you been and spoken to the residents?

Have you ever tried actually using a gigabit connection? Can you do math?

 

[wiyosaya]

A year or two down the road, and this will go the way of Google-FI.

 

[human7]

It's too bad so few people can get Google Fiber. "Google Fiber is in Austin", they said. No, it's in downtown Austin, the immediate surrounding area, and that's basically it. Over half of the city doesn't have it.

And I imagine every other city out there that Google Fiber "is in" is similar.

Neat that they are doing this, but will have very little impact.

 

[OortCloud]

A year or two down the road, and this will go the way of Google-FI.

I can't think of any company I want having control over the internet infrastructure less than Google.
As they have shown time and again, they will monetize this and your usage ruthlessly in ways you cannot even imagine, especially in the future once people are locked in. That's how they operate. The company needs dismantling.

 

[axiomatic13]

A year or two down the road, and this will go the way of Google-FI.

Is Google Fi gone? My whole family still uses it?

 

[ScottSoapbox]

I don't know what 20 Gb internet is good for other than a bigger number for marketing.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy my 1 Gb connection, but most servers have a lower download cap than that.

Wifi 7's 10 Gb is theoretical in ideal conditions. Even most wired routers top out at 2.5 or 5.

 

[Mr Majestyk]

I'd be more worried about upload speed not download. In Australia I'm on a 1Gb/s download plan, but that only gets you 50Mb/s upload. It's a sad joke how pathetic our uploads speeds are. There are no symmetric plans even for business and the fastest plan available in Australia is 1000/400 and cost like $400 per month for business and this is on a fibre network. The fibre is fully capable of far higher speeds.

 

[wiyosaya]

Is Google Fi gone? My whole family still uses it?

I meant Google Fiber - that's what you get from a company like google. Confuse people with marketing blather. Google Fiber started out with much promise and ended up only in a few cities. Apparently, you can still get it, IF you live in one of those few cities. Elsewhere, and you're out of luck.

 

[Greggs]

I meant Google Fiber - that's what you get from a company like google. Confuse people with marketing blather. Google Fiber started out with much promise and ended up only in a few cities. Apparently, you can still get it, IF you live in one of those few cities. Elsewhere, and you're out of luck.

Someone is still confused somewhere since GFiber and Google Fiber are the same thing.

 

[kmo113]

There are limitations on getting even 10 gb/s on black fiber from altibox signal in norway. telenor was going past us with real fiber lines in about 2008-10 when laying out lines under Narvik from Trondheim to Narvik.
those who put out lines was crying out loud that a little place in nordland was abandoned and no fiber support at all.
so when we 1 was on adsl from telenor we got about 5-8mb/s.
but 1 st line from altibox was 100Mb/s-1gb/s max today. I hope we getting real fiber optical lines we are maxed out. waiting for a bigger lines would be a LOL.

 

[kmo113]

Rule for Free internet.

 

[toooooot]

All I ask is one Gbps...

 

[toooooot]

I'd be more worried about upload speed not download. In Australia I'm on a 1Gb/s download plan, but that only gets you 50Mb/s upload. It's a sad joke how pathetic our uploads speeds are. There are no symmetric plans even for business and the fastest plan available in Australia is 1000/400 and cost like $400 per month for business and this is on a fibre network. The fibre is fully capable of far higher speeds.

That is interesting. It seems like it is technical rather than commercial limit.
I wonder if when they were building it they simply saved on equipment that would work equally fast in both direction.
I vaguely remember a page about fiber cables, they are different and their abilities are possibly too.

 

[Mark Fuller]

People using for home use do not need that type of juice unless youre hosting the neighborhood pr0n ring or you have 10 kids in the house all whoring the bandwidth...
Most servers for gaming/apps/etc... have a bandwidth ceiling.... and its a hellva lot smaller than this..

I am not sure at this time what a 20 G connection will cost. No One has said that. And I wonder if a typical home user would be able to afford or to justify such an expenditure.

 

[MANLEY85]

HUSH your mouth yes us home user do want/need this speed.

 

[MasterMace]

Google Fiber claimed they were coming to Boston.
Still not in Boston.

 

[PEnnn]

Instead of concentrating on increasing speed, how about increasing coverage areas? Right now only a few large cities have it.

What good is all that speed if only a tiny fraction of the population has access to it?

 

[gbxx69]

Verizon only has 2 gigabit? Really, Verizon... for shame!!
Why is it that ISPs in the mid-west, and even Altice offer faster speeds, and yet just Verizon still doesn't have much incentive to compete? There are still entry level internet plans below 500 megabits and no roadmap to increase those speeds at even prices close to the entry level tier. This is very shameful... when ISPs have been pigs at the troughs taking public monies and returning no big jumps in internet speeds for at least 8 years (when 100mbits went to 200 or 200 went to 300 tiers).

 

[loki1944]

People using for home use do not need that type of juice unless youre hosting the neighborhood pr0n ring or you have 10 kids in the house all whoring the bandwidth...
Most servers for gaming/apps/etc... have a bandwidth ceiling.... and its a hellva lot smaller than this..

Articles like this flaunting their bandwidth wealth while the best in my area is 700KB/s from 7am to 2am and 3MB/s from 2am to 7am

 

[wiyosaya]

All I ask is one Gbps...

I have 500mbps, symmetric, and its fantastic. That's all I need as its only my wife and I. We have never had any contention where either of us are using so much bandwidth that the other is starved. I could see the need for more, however, if we had kids, or other family members who devour internet bandwidth.

 

[wiyosaya]

That is interesting. It seems like it is technical rather than commercial limit.
I wonder if when they were building it they simply saved on equipment that would work equally fast in both direction.
I vaguely remember a page about fiber cables, they are different and their abilities are possibly too.

The theoretical limits on fiber data transmission are about 1/2 the frequency of the light used to carry it. Here's a much more technical discussion if you are interested - https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/56240/maximum-theoretical-bandwidth-of-fibre-optics

 

[PanfiloTexas]

We just recently left Xfinity 1200/18 service for Tachus 1gig up/down service. I tried to saturate the line by streaming 4 4k movies from different providers and doing an xbox update at the same time. I think it reached 540 max download overall. 20G will be insane.