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Google in Kansas City: A Tale of Two-Speed America

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11–20 of 82 posts

Re: Google in Kansas City: A Tale of Two-Speed America

#11
post #7

"Liimatta tried to convince Google to install connections in community buildings, to power a cheap WiFi service in low-income areas. The company refused, saying it violated its terms of service. “It’s our biggest disappointment. We would have loved to have taken Google Fiber to the worst places, where it could have really made a difference.”

>where it could have really made a difference.

Is there a study that shows that the low income population makes better use of high speed bandwidth? Right now it's mainly just a luxury product for HD video streams and the majority of the educational gains of an Internet connection can be had with 5-10mbps.

Re: Google in Kansas City: A Tale of Two-Speed America

#12
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to Akamai's State of the Internet report for Q1, the US has an average broadband speed of 11.9mbps. Romania is 12.8mbps, Poland is 9.8mbps. By comparison France is 7.5mbps, and Germany is 10.2mbps. Based on the median household income in Romania being 16% that of the US, if 1gbps Internet access there costs $35-$40, you're paying the US equivalent of $210-$240.

It's actually 14$/mo. with VAT in Romania for 1000mbps. I'm not sure if Akamai's state of the Internet also takes into account mobile connections, because those would certainly drop the average speed down. Edit: the speed itself is also not limited to just inside the country, although ISPs in Europe use public peerings a lot more than those in the US. http://www.speedtest.net/result/4647615600.png http://www.speedtes…

With an unlimited gigabit port? How much is a server there with that speed, is there a Romanian Hetzner equivalent?

Re: Google in Kansas City: A Tale of Two-Speed America

#13
post #3

Romania, and parts of Poland where new Fiber networks are laid out have ~$35-40 1Gbit unlimited internet. Meanwhile people in US wonder how much Google is losing on $100 per 1Gb clients? :)

FWIW, $100/mo is for small businesses, so presumably many users sharing the bandwidth. It is $70/mo for residential.

Re: Google in Kansas City: A Tale of Two-Speed America

#15
post #12
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's actually 14$/mo. with VAT in Romania for 1000mbps. I'm not sure if Akamai's state of the Internet also takes into account mobile connections, because those would certainly drop the average speed down. Edit: the speed itself is also not limited to just inside the country, although ISPs in Europe use public peerings a lot more than those in the US. http://www.speedtest.net/result/4647615600.png http://www.speedtes…

With an unlimited gigabit port? How much is a server there with that speed, is there a Romanian Hetzner equivalent?

This price is for residential users only. You can't really beat hetzner on price.

Re: Google in Kansas City: A Tale of Two-Speed America

#16
I am always amazed that people can't figure out why Google is doing this.

Google is rolling out fiber to neuter Comcast. Period.

Comcast basically blackmailed Google several years back and thought they won. Google, rightfully, now saw Comcast as an existential threat to their business.

Google will keep rolling out until they have Comcast by the balls. Only then will they stop.

Re: Google in Kansas City: A Tale of Two-Speed America

#17
post #14

That looks an awful lot like a paid article.

Paid by whom, exactly? It's not particularly complimentary towards Google. It's not particularly complimentary towards any incumbents, either. Unless you're suggesting that the less well off population of Kansas City pooled their resources to lobby for an article in the Financial Times, nothing in the article suggests any kind of untoward influence.

Re: Google in Kansas City: A Tale of Two-Speed America

#18
This is just mentioned as an aside in the article, but is this accurate?

"Even now, the schools in Kansas City, Missouri, are effectively segregated, with almost all white children at private schools. Just nine per cent of pupils in the state system are white. Almost 90 per cent are on free lunches."

That statistic was totally shocking to me. Are there any other places in the U.S. where there's such a dramatic disparity in the race of students in public school relative to the overall population?

Re: Google in Kansas City: A Tale of Two-Speed America

#19
post #18

This is just mentioned as an aside in the article, but is this accurate? "Even now, the schools in Kansas City, Missouri, are effectively segregated, with almost all white children at private schools. Just nine per cent of pupils in the state system are white. Almost 90 per cent are on free lunches." That statistic was totally shocking to me. Are there any other places in the U.S. where there's such a dramatic dispar…

http://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/news/press-releases/2014-...

Although that isn't the exact same statistic. Basically in NY black kids go to school with black kids and white kids go to school with white kids, although there might be both a white public school and a black public school.

Re: Google in Kansas City: A Tale of Two-Speed America

#20
post #18

This is just mentioned as an aside in the article, but is this accurate? "Even now, the schools in Kansas City, Missouri, are effectively segregated, with almost all white children at private schools. Just nine per cent of pupils in the state system are white. Almost 90 per cent are on free lunches." That statistic was totally shocking to me. Are there any other places in the U.S. where there's such a dramatic dispar…

St. Louis has a similar disparity, especially vs its MSA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Louis_Public_Schools#Demog...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Louis#Demographics

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