The FSN was an interactive TV/VoD tech trial that laid the foundation for the digital platform that  TW Cable eventually rolled out nationally... it was an expensive experiment, but not really something that was going to be deployed wide in that form (i.e., you can't make a business out of set-tops that purportedly cost $6K per unit).  You can check out a pic of the honkin' box that ran the FSN service here.

But agree that Google will have a hard time living up to the hype, but it will be interesting to see if any of their experiments, like the FSN's, turn into widely deployed products. JB

...there was this thing called the Full Service Network, built by Time Warner Cable. The few thousand families that had FSN could interact with their TVs, ordering pizza and postage stamps, and viewing movies on demand.

Now I'm not saying Google's FTTH network will quietly disappear in a few years, as the FSN did, but I'm wondering if it has any hope of living up to the hype and being anything more than what other FTTH networks are today.

Will a few K.C. families enjoy the media spotlight for a few days or weeks? Or will Google's grand experiment at building a next gen network actually show up the telecom/cable industry and offer genuine service and technology breakthroughs?

Inquiring minds want to know but wonder if Google will ever tell us.