The Telangana government has apparently approached Google to send a team, to examine the feasibility of rolling out Google Fiber in the state, reports Business Standard. According to the report, the request was made by Telangana’s IT and panchayat raj minister KT Rama Rao, during his current visit to the US. The state government also briefed Google about its Telangana Drinking Water Project, so that the search giant could consider using the same duct lines to carry optical fiber cables to every house. The Rs 25,000 crore water grid project to provide drinking water to all homes in the state, is expected to be completed by 2019. Frankly, this is a very interesting initiative by the state, in a country where the TRAI defines broadband as a minimum speed of 512kbps. In contrast, the Google Fiber project offers gigabit (1000mbps) connections for households at $70 (~Rs 4,500) month, while providing free 5mbps connections for those that only pay the $300 (~Rs 19,100) construction fee. The company waives the $300 construction fee if users commit to a 1 year gigabit connection. Other than this Google also offers a $130 (~Rs 8,300) per month gigabit connection which includes over 150 HD channels. It offers 1TB of storage across Google services like gmail on both gigabit plans and a network box to all plans. As for the free 5mbps connection, it only has an upload speed of 1mbps and is valid for 7 years per address. The company also offers business gigabit plans.…
