Google May Spend 'Hundreds of Millions' on Broadband

Google said it may spend as much as "hundreds of millions" of dollars on an experimental broadband service that offers Internet speeds 100 times faster than current networks.

The cost of the test project, announced this month, isn't known and will depend on demographics, the lay of the land and the number of households that use it, said Richard Whitt, Google's Washington counsel on telecommunications and media issues. The company hasn't determined the location or size of the network, which could serve 50,000 to 500,000 customers. Google, after urging the Federal Communications Commission to expand broadband access, is developing the network to show the potential of high-speed Internet service. It also wants to ensure that networks are open to different software and technologies, rather than the ones picked by service providers.

"This is not a small thing," Whitt said in an interview. "We're trying to advance the ball on open networks. We're hopeful this is one way to do that."