Google has unveiled their fibre optic plan in Kansas City in the United States. Three plans are available providing users with up to 1 Gbps symmetric access speeds, with the first subscribers to come online in mid-2013.

Google has officially opened Google Fiber in Kansas City and its suburbs, now making the search giant an Internet Service Provider. Google is looking to evaluate what new uses will come about with very high speed fibre optic internet access to the home, with users to have a 1 Gbps (symmetric) connection, the equivalent of "100 times faster than what most Americans have today".

All eligible homes will be connected by the end of 2013, with the deployment being done once 40 to 80 homes in an area have pre-registered. To pre-register a 10 dollar fee has to be paid. The zones with the most number of homes signed up will be deployed first.

There will be three offers on offer, including one that is free for users who believe they will later move on to 1 Gbps access. They will be given free access at 5 Mbps (with 1 Mbps upload speeds) for seven years. They will have to pay the fibre optic connection fee though which is either a one off 300 dollars or 25 dollars per month.

The Gigabit Internet pack costs 70 dollars per month and brings with it a 1 Gbps connection speed with a set top box that provides 1 TB of storage space on Google Drive. For a one year subscription, the implementation charges will be waived.

At 120 dollars per month, the Gigabit + Google Fibre TV pack with a two year subscription will see Google providing users with a Nexus 7 tablet (which is used as the remote control), a TV set top box and access to hundreds of channels and video on demand, while the set top box comes with 2 TB of storage space.

The Google Fibre offers are presented on this site. Last year, Google stated to the French minister for the digital economy that they intend on installing a fibre optic network around Europe.

Source: Generation NT