Is Google Planning To Fibre Britain? 184
Barence writes with this excerpt from PC Pro: "Google has emerged as a surprise contender to invest in Britain's fibre broadband network. The search giant yesterday announced plans to build a gigabit fibre broadband network in the US. The test network will see Google deliver fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) connections to up to half a million US homes. The move raises the possibility that Google is behind the Conservative Party's ambitious plans to deliver nationwide 100Mbits/sec connections by 2017. Parliamentary sources have told PC Pro that the Tories' plans were based on foreign investment in the UK broadband network."
all your base are belong to us (Score:5, Insightful)
But I'm getting a little scared of Google.....To many fingers in to many pies. We are meant to use a Google Thin Client, to access Google Services, over Google Fibre....
They make their money by gathering data about us from our data. Shouldn't that make us question them owning so much of our data? They could have us by the short and curlies. Maybe "don't be evil" makes that safe for now, but who knows what the future holds? Even if Google can for ever be trusted, and don't give the data to those who can't be trusted, it's them who decide who to trust! We can not trust the markets to resolve this. Consumers will just blindly sleep walk into this if it makes for a easy life now. Which they might with Windows being so bad for malware, virus etc etc (because of the nature of Windows and it's users). "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin - 1775
It Depends... (Score:5, Insightful)
So at every juncture Google will be connected to everything?
Potentially access the interner via a Goggle ISP, accessing Google DNS, using Google search, communicating via Google email, using Goole chat and Google Buzz with my friends.
Am I being paranoid or will my privacy become a moot point?
I do use Google search and gmail on a regular basis and it's also free of charge. In return they use my data - cannot complain about that.
If it really bothered me I can use alternatives.
I think it is commendable that Google are willing to roll-out fibre (in the USA only at the moment) and improve the technology.
But "holy crap" that is an expensive undertaking!
I read about this somewhere else and I think Google were going to charge a "competitive" fee for access.
Broadband in the UK now largely sucks arse because the cost of improving/replacing existing lines is very expensive. No company is willing to take the risk so Google stepping forward ideally is a "good thing".
However, if they can guarantee the same rights some other ISPs in the UK then great and I am willing to pay for it. If Google want to analyse all my packets of data and use it to advertise stuff to me then I'm not so sure I will like this development.
Entities like Phorm, BT, Virgin & Tiscali (Talk Talk) are more than happy to follow the UK Government's / music industry's lead on intrusive surveillance. That's why I refuse to use thier services.
If Google want to lay down infrastructure then that's fine - as long as I have a choice to do otherwise.
This is mainly due to Eric Schmidt's comments on your expected privacy.
I still want the freedom to choose while I have it.
fuck off, Google (Score:5, Insightful)
You still haven't delivered the algorithms you promised to open 12 years ago. Your top executives believe that no-one online is entitled to privacy (unless he is a top Google exec, who will deny press information to journalists who publish information about him). You require NSA clearance for any significant technical positions.
Only an idiot today would think you "do no evil". You're just like any nasty group in its early years - start off promising the world, slowly reneging on promises which matter, and one by one revealing your true intentions. You give people the sense of security they'll so easily swallow until it's too late to clamour for alternatives.
We don't want you in the UK. BT is a heap of steaming shit, but at least their gross incompetence limits their ability to cooperate effectively with the Crown Estate of Mandelson.
Re:all your base are belong to us (Score:2, Insightful)
Maybe "don't be evil" makes that safe for now
How does a soundbite make anything safe?
Re:all your base are belong to us (Score:4, Insightful)
You know, while I appreciate the sentiment about Google, here, I'm getting heartily fed up of the over-use of the Ben Franklin quote on slashdot. It's thought-provoking and makes a good rhetorical point, but it fails any attempt at decent analysis. All people deserve liberty and safety, in a "we hold the following truths to be self-evident" sort of way, so no one should be said not to deserve it. And by its wording it strongly implies that "liberty"==="essential liberty" i.e. all degrees of liberty are equally essential, and somehow denigrates the concept of "temporary safety".
Yeah, I'm probably quoting Mr F out of context, and I'm not a political philosopher, so I'm sure my argument isn't watertight. So sue me. But I do feel that in some quarters the quote is designed to appeal the claque in here, in much the same way that "think of the children" - that much-mocked phrase - is used to appeal to the reactionary corner of society. It actually stops people from analysing the problem in hand by triggering some kind of American/Liberal hindbrain reflex.
Can we think about it a little more, that's all I'm asking.
Language abuse (Score:5, Insightful)
Please stop verbing nouns.
That corporate whores enjoy fucking with language is no good reason for us to bend over and spread ’em.
Cheers,
b&
Re:It Depends... (Score:1, Insightful)
Am I being paranoid or will my privacy become a moot point?
You haven't been paying attention. Personal privacy in Britain is already gone, so your question is moot.
HTTP-only? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Well someone has to. (Score:3, Insightful)
Someone has to do it...
That's pretty much all the article says. Someone has to do it --> Google have some money --> maybe they'll do it.
But it involves Google, so it's front page news.
Re:Language abuse (Score:5, Insightful)
Quick, someone with mod points mod this "+1 ironic" for matching the "corporate whores" by turning the noun "verb" into a verb ;)
"Medieval"? (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually, London is a problem - it is spaghetti under the streets and a lot of areas have poor connectivity.
However, you really do need to reconsider your voting. The Party that wants us out of the EU (civil liberties, human rights) seems to want to allow us to be bought by the US. Energy privatisation under Thatcher just worked so well, didn't it? So well that we pay the Germans and the French for the privilege of supplying us with energy, and then they nearly run out of gas because they have emptied our tanks to be sure their home markets are OK in a cold spell. And we have to be bailed out by the Russians. And now the idea is to get the US to pay for our broadband infrastructure so that for the rest of time our money can be exported to US companies, who will naturally bend over backwards to supply our data to the US and avoid European data protection laws.
The Conservatives went wrong when they appointed a PR man with media connections to run the Party rather than an old fashioned English patriot. I can't see how David Davis (who understands civil liberties) would have gone along with this. It would be funny if it was not so sick that the Conservatives are run by the man who did PR for the channel that puts on Big Brother.
Re:Surely "From the department of making shit up"? (Score:3, Insightful)
Not as far as I know. Virgin Media own pretty much all the cable infrastructure (and according to Wikipedia) are basically fibre to the cabinet. As NTL it spent a lot of time trying to drag together the various merged cable companies, suffered from a terrible reputation for customer service and was struggling to turn a profit. Investment in e.g. FTTP was a lower priority. As Virgin Media (NTL effectively reversed into Virgin Mobile to become Virgin Media) they've turned a lot of this around - but no FTTP yet as far as I'm aware.
BT owns the phone infrastructure. The fact that they've got any sort of ADSL over some of their infrastructure is a hell of an achievement, but it's still lipstick on a pig. They do have some FTTP showcases but I doubt they're keen to invest in other than small areas if the next likely government is advertising that any investment would benefit their competitors too.