Google (GOOG +0.45%) continues to pursue several broadband access projects. The freshly unveiled Project Loon concept aims to encircle the earth with a series of networked weather balloons, gliding around the stratosphere. Just a few years ago, Big G bought a $2 billion-dollar office building in New York -- right atop the nexus of several backbone data feeds for the Eastern seaboard's Internet needs. And of course, there's Google Fiber, where the company sells high-speed access lines at a very reasonable cost in a select handful of test markets.
Analyst firm Evercore Partners sees Google becoming one of the nation's 10 largest broadband service providers in seven to nine years. In the video below, Fool contributor Anders Bylund respectfully disagrees. Google will either reach that milestone much faster than Evercore's most optimistic forecast -- or never reach it at all.
Anders explains how Google's final destination will depend on how today's leading Internet service providers -- such as Verizon (VZ +0.06%) and Comcast (CMCSA 1.39%) -- respond to Google's high-quality, low-cost offering. So far, both companies have largely stuck their heads in the sand. They can't afford to ignore the high-speed revolution forever.
No matter who ends up running tomorrow's high-speed access lines, both Google and the American consumer look like surefire winners here.
