BE Broadband don’t think too much to Google launching their own fibre optic network.
The recent announcement that Google is to initially roll out a fibre optic network to between 50,000 and 500,000 homes in the USA which aims to have broadband speeds of up to 1Gb has got the guys from Be Broadband giving their thoughts.
Although we should embrace the fact that faster broadband is being developed the worry is the fact that it is another part of the Internet that Google could start to dominate in and how long before they have a monopoly of the Internet.
This was a point made by Alinna Chung, the Online Product Manager for Be broadband who said:
“Faster broadband and challenging providers who have rested on their laurels for too long is awesome, but I don’t really like the idea that Google will know everything I do with my connection, even if I opt out of their normal services. If they have a point of disagreement with a specific governing institution, are they going to be able to completely cut me off from information if I depend on them for both my access and my source of information? I think Google means well, but ultimately, diversifying sources/dependencies means that people can maintain their freedom.“
Tom Williams, Head Of Operations at Be Broadband said:
“although it’s great to push boundaries and continue to demonstrate the value of high bandwidth services, monopolies are never good, and you’d have to question the true freedom of the web if one company became so dominant.“
It will be interesting to see how well the the Google fibre broadband goes in the USA as it could lead to a roll out in other countries including the UK.