Eight Years On, Google Fiber Is a Faint Echo of the Disruption Promised

Post by JohnnyConatus » Mon, Mar 05, 2018, 8:51 PM UTC

rb808 wrote: post #174

One thing is that most people really dont need gigabit connection. I'd think most people couldn't tell the difference between 10mbps & 1gig. Maybe 25-100 mbps is required if you have 8 kids each streaming their own movies. Maybe 5g is enough and the fiber rollout is a waste of resources. Upstream backups are a little different. It doesn't work quick enough with dsl. But isn't that important.

Post by radiorental » Mon, Mar 05, 2018, 9:01 PM UTC

bob_theslob646 wrote: post #89

radiorental wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fwiw, $140 is quite a lot. We shared what everyone was paying for Fios here at work. I'm on the upper end of $65 for 50/50 (no TV). The lowest we found was 1G for $40. the trick seems to be to cancel and sign up again for the new user deals.

He also mentioned that he gets a TV package. I believe gigabit is $70 a month stand alone from Verizon.

Post by stcredzero » Mon, Mar 05, 2018, 9:16 PM UTC

AFNobody wrote: post #256

stcredzero wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They simply haven't developed the weapons to destroy the WISPs yet, but unless the political climate in states/cities changes, they will. Basically, authoritarianism rears its ugly head in the US once again, across corporate, national, state, and local levels. The same general kind of gaming of the system which resulted in interstates dividing white from non-white neighborhoods is now maintaining the media status quo…

> Basically, authoritarianism rears its ugly head in the US once again, across corporate, national, state, and local levels. The same general kind of gaming of the system which resulted in interstates dividing white from non-white neighborhoods is now maintaining the media status quo. On one side, it's the corporatism and Crony Capitalism the left traditionally complains about, now wielded by the Far Left as a non-go…

Post by knowaveragejoe » Mon, Mar 05, 2018, 9:21 PM UTC

zpallin wrote: post #263

knowaveragejoe wrote: post #208

Maybe it's because I live in a wealthier and more dense metropolitan area where there is actually still some semblance of competition between them, but over that same time period both major ISPs in the area have stepped up the speeds they offer and prices haven't risen to match(as far as I can tell). Their lowest tier service is 50mbit, which was just a few years ago one of the highest. Both are offering gigabit to t…

But the technology for these speeds were available 15 years ago. The ISPs did not offer them or build them out to consumers, and this attributed to the lack of competition. Without Google trying to enter the scene, most internet consumers would not have realized they could get better. Also, these ISPs are overcharging for their service. Google's pricing allowed people to peer into the fact that they were being cheate…

Post by chiph » Mon, Mar 05, 2018, 9:31 PM UTC

mcguire wrote: post #232

rayiner wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your analysis is backwards. There aren't special laws that "make it difficult for new companies to hang wires." The issue was not Google hanging its own wires, but Google contractors moving AT&T's wires in order to make space on the poles. Louisville passed special laws to enable one company to relocate another company's property on utility poles. I think those laws are a good idea, but its hard to blame AT&T for not…

" (Incidentally, a team of four guys with heavy equipment have spent the last three hours trenching fiber 50 feet through my tiny yard. That's the second visit, and there will be one more, and that's not counting running the fiber down the main road which required months of permitting and surveying...) " Do you live northwest of Austin, where 18 inches below the surface there is about two feet of solid limestone?