If you live in Kansas, your internet could be set to get a hell of a lot better – and possibly even cheaper – with Google’s 1000MBs Fiber service. But the search engine giant’s announcement won’t just cause AT&T and Verizon to cower in fear – it has huge implications for cloud gaming.
Google Fiber is the company’s plan to force Internet Service Providers to become more competitive and offer better speeds at lower prices. They need speeds to be faster so that you can watch YouTube videos, stream Google TV and do a myriad of other things online that make them money. Slow internet speeds hold back web users, and make watching normal TV or reading physical newspapers all the more appealing, so it’s obvious why Google is so desperate to shake things up (plus, they’ll probably make some money as an ISP, as well as gaining access to even more personal data). To kick things off, Google has teamed up with the Kansas local government to implement an ambitious fiber optics rollout – 1000mbps for $70 a month, which is 20x faster than competing Time Warner’s $99.95/month service.
Now, it’ll be a while before the service is fully set up in Kansas (lucky citizens can pre-register here), and even longer before the service rolls out across the US and possibly the world, but it still will massively change how quickly internet speeds will improve. The Google Fiber service itself will obviously cause millions to have incredibly fast internet, but other ISPs will also be forced to improve their services and lower their prices. Other countries will also have to invest in their own infrastructure to keep up and ensure their local businesses are still competitive.
Gaikai, the cloud company Sony recently bought for $380 million, only requires 5-8mbps for a quality experience, but people complain about the fact that it means you can’t do anything else online without suffering lag or a complete disconnection. With 1000mbps, that’s a complete worry of the past – technically 200 people could play Gaikai simultaneously in one house. So that means you have all the advantages of cloud gaming – instant gaming, no expensive hardware, always up-to-date tech, cross-platform gameplay – without its biggest flaw.
If you had 1000mps internet, and Sony offered every PlayStation game over the cloud, would you even buy a next gen console? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
