Google Fiber launching 20Gbps plan for homes
Google Fiber — a broadband Internet and IPTV service in the US — will upgrade some of its residential users to a 20Gbps service by the end of the year.
The initiative is the first project of GFiber Labs — a development hub focused on pushing the envelope of fast home and business Internet solutions.
To allow customers to make use of the high speed, Google will be using Nokia’s 25G PON technology and a custom pre-certification Wi-Fi 7 router.
The service will initially be available as an early access offering to a small group of GFiber customers in select areas, including Kansas City.
Customers within Google Fiber coverage areas can sign up to potentially receive an invitation to the service through the GFiber Labs website.
20Gbps can support download and upload speeds of up to 2.5GB/s.
That is fast enough to download a high-quality 4K video in less than 10 seconds or a 100GB video game in 40 seconds.
You could also fill up a 1TB SDD with downloaded data in less than 7 minutes, assuming the drive has a fast enough write speed.
Google Fiber’s current fastest speed available to residential users is 8Gbps.
In South Africa, the fastest generally available home Internet speed is 1Gbps.
Despite being substantially slower than Google Fiber’s offering, it is more than sufficient for the vast majority of residential users and also provides enough bandwidth for most small and medium-sized businesses.
For home users, packages with this speed are available from all major fibre network operators (FNOs) except Openserve.
Although Vumatel has been trialling a 10Gbps residential service since May 2022, the company has gone quiet about developments on this front.
Its focus appears to be less on the top-end speeds and more on bringing entry-level products to lower-income areas, with its Vuma Reach and Vuma Key initiatives.
For large businesses, providers like BitCo and Liquid Telecom offer 10Gbps products.
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