Called the "Dark porcelain" project, the official name is Google TiSP (BETA)™, and Google describe it as “a free in-home wireless broadband service that delivers online connectivity via users' plumbing systems”.

True to Google’s policy of easy to use and monetized through advertising revenue, Google’s press release says that: “The Toilet Internet Service Provider (TiSP) project is a self-installed, ad-supported online service that will be offered entirely free to any consumer with a WiFi-capable PC and a toilet connected to a local municipal sewage system.”

Support for TiSP has clearly come from the very heights of Google’s management, as Google Co-founder and President Larry Page has waded in to give his endorsement. He said that “We've got that whole organizing-the-world's-information thing more or less under control. What's interesting, though, is how many different modalities there are for actually getting that information to you - not to mention from you.”

It’s probably best to let Google’s press release do the further explaining on the rationale behind TiSP. Google’s release continues that: “For years, data carriers have confronted the "last hundred yards" problem for delivering data from local networks into individual homes. Now Google has successfully devised a "last hundred smelly yards" solution that takes advantage of preexisting plumbing and sewage systems and their related hydraulic data-transmission capabilities.

"There's actually a thriving little underground community that's been studying this exact solution for a long time," says Page. "And today our Toilet ISP team is pleased to be leading the way through the sewers, up out of your toilet and - splat - right onto your PC.”

Always concerned for ease of use for Google’s loyal users, the release goes on to explain exactly how the system will be installed, although it is worth noting that Google’s website has a fully illustrated installation page to make things easy, which Google says is for “Interested consumers, contractually obligated partners and deeply skeptical and quietly competitive backbiters”. 

Google’s release says that “Users who sign up online for the TiSP system will receive a full home self-installation kit, which includes a spindle of fiber-optic cable, a TiSP wireless router, installation CD and setup guide. Home installation is a simple matter of GFlushing™ the fiber-optic cable down to the nearest TiSP Access Node, then plugging the other end into the network port of your Google-provided TiSP wireless router. Within sixty minutes, the Access Node's crack team of Plumbing Hardware Dispatchers (PHDs) should have your internet connection up and running”.

Marissa Mayer, Google's Vice President of Search Products and User Experience said that: “I couldn't be more excited about, and am only slightly grossed out by, this remarkable new product. I firmly believe TiSP will be a breakthrough product, particularly for those users who, like Larry himself, do much of their best thinking in the bathroom.”

So, although we know the service is free, there are faster, paid options,  along with some interesting minimum system (and toilet) requirements. Please read onto page 2 to find out, and for the conclusion!