1. Sony Corporation announced yesterday that its own Internet service provider So-net Entertainment has launched what is thought to be the world’s fastest Internet connection for home use, with download speeds clocking in at a massive 2 Gbps, on average twice as fast as competing high-speed fibre connections in Japan.
Targeting individual homes and apartment buildings of two floors or fewer, the ultra-fast connection, known as Nuro, will cost 4,980 yen (US$51) per month. Download speeds will be 2 Gbps and uploads of up to 1 Gbps. Customers are required to sign up for a two-year contract and pay 52,500 yen ($535) for the initial installation.
The company was able to afford the upgrades largely by winning federal stimulus awards set aside for broadband. Using $94 million in stimulus money, VTel has invested in stringing 1,200 miles of fiber across a number of rural Vermont counties over the past year
3. Goldman Sachs estimates that it would cost $140 billion to deploy Google Fiber nationwide.
A report, conducted jointly by Ericsson, Arthur D. Little and Chalmers University of Technology in 33 OECD countries, shows that doubling the broadband speed for an economy increases GDP by 0.3%. Gigabit internet is about 100 times faster than regular cable and DSL speeds. This would be a 2.0% boost in GDP. The 15 trillion US economy would be boosted by 300 billion each year.
If the government paid Google to deploy Google Fiber nationwide then 20% taxes against the increased economic activity would take about three years to recover the $140 billion investment.
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Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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