How many more markets can Google dip it's toes into? Today the Web and Internet powerhouse said that it's planning to build and test an ultra fast fibre based broadband network and trial it in communities around the US that are interested in participating. The service will offer speeds of around 1Gbps, which is 100 times faster than what the average American household has access to. If successful Google will more than likely expand the project further and offer full fibre-to-the-home connections sometime in the future and at a competitive price. This announcement comes after Google previously announced plans to enhance connection speeds by augmenting the ageing HTTP protocol with their own SPDY protocol. Early tests of the new protocol have been encouraging for Google.

Initially Google are after at least 50,000 subscribers but hope that up to 500,000 people will sign up to the service, which Google say is a learning exercise to see how next generation networks can be built and run. Maybe that's too modest a figure as I suspect that many millions of people would find the idea of Google as an ISP intriguing. No doubt there will be a lot of chatter both for and against Google entering the ISP business.

Google wants to experiment with faster Internet access as it has specific agendas that it wants to explore including:

• Next generation apps: We want to see what developers and users can do with ultra high-speeds, whether it's creating new bandwidth-intensive "killer apps" and services, or other uses we can't yet imagine.
• New deployment techniques: We'll test new ways to build fiber networks, and to help inform and support deployments elsewhere, we'll share key lessons learned with the world.
• Openness and choice: We'll operate an "open access" network, giving users the choice of multiple service providers. And consistent with our past advocacy, we'll manage our network in an open, non-discriminatory and transparent way.

Google has put out a request for information to help it identify communities that would be interested in the trial. You have untill March 26^th to register you're interest and they are also encouraging local governments to get in touch with them too. Google will announce later in the year which communities have been selected for the trial. I suspect Google will get more interest than they thought they would because this announcement is potentially game changing. If it's successful, why would Google want to pull out of it and not offer a fully fledged ISP service?