Google has just announced that they're going to start building and testing a number of networks of 1 gigabit fibre-optic broadband internet connections in a variety of locations in the US, as they try and provide all kinds of communities with access to future-proof web content.

They use examples like being able to sit in a rural healthcare center and watch three-dimensional medical imaging, streamed over the web, or even being a student watching a 3D university lecture whilst also accessing notes.

The company hopes to deliver this "fibre-to-the-home" network to a number of communities for a low-rate, serving at least 50,000 people and perhaps even as many as 500,000, with the announcements as to which markets will be covered in future months.

In their eyes, it should hopefully stimulate the development of the next generation of "killer apps" that aren't limited by bandwidth.

[Google Blog]