In a move that surely has some folks at Verizon looking for a change of pants, Google announced today that it is planning to build and test a ultra-high-speed broadband network that would deliver data at 1 Gb per second, up to 100x that of current Internet connections. Oh, and they want to offer it on the cheap.

“Imagine sitting in a rural health clinic, streaming three-dimensional medical imaging over the web and discussing a unique condition with a specialist in New York,” reads the statement, announced on Google’s official blog this morning. “Or downloading a high-definition, full-length feature film in less than five minutes. Or collaborating with classmates around the world while watching live 3-D video of a university lecture. Universal, ultra high-speed Internet access will make all this and more possible.”

Planning to start with a test network of as few as 50,000 and as many as 500,000 users, Google has put out requests for information in an effort to identify interested communities.

Here’s a video, for those of you who like such things:

Think big with a gig: Our experimental fiber network [Official Google Blog]

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