Google Australia’s Engineering Director Explains Why We Don’t Need Google Fiber

Noble took to Google Plus yesterday to share the news about the Fiber project and said that the web giant is doing it in the US for the same reason the company thinks the NBN is a good idea: “because high-speed broadband spurs innovation”.

A curious follower of Noble’s stuck his neck out and suggested that Google could offer a Fiber-like service running at 1Gbps for Australians in the same way that No ISP is doing it — as a co-operative, non-profit venture for tech savvy Australians.

The follower, Scott Weston, said that Google Australia should became a local ISP, adding that if it did, he’d know that there was at least one provider pushing for Gigabit speeds over fibre for their customers.

Noble said that there was just no need for Google to become an ISP in Australia because eventually, everyone would have Gigabit speeds:

“In theory, the NBN should fulfill that need in Australia. Restricting the NBN to 100Mbps speeds is purely a commercial decision, not a technical one. There is no technical reason the NBN could not run at Gbps speeds.﻿

So if you’re jumping up and down about Google Fiber and pining for it at your house, head over to NBN Co’s roll-out map and see when the NBN will arrive in your area. The reason you’re probably excited about Fiber is because the government isn’t as good at making pretty instructional videos about fibre networks as Google is.