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Visible signs left after Google Fiber abandons Louisville

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Re: Visible signs left after Google Fiber abandons Louisville

#121

Post by reaperducer »

anonymous5133 wrote: post #31
yingw787 wrote: post #25

When I interned at AT&T a few years ago, I asked a manager I respected whether they were worried about Google Fiber coming in and eating their lunch. "No", he said. "We'll sue them for every mile of fiber they lay down". I can understand why they would make that play. It's kind of the only play they have. AT&T and Verizon innovate enough to remain...okay...but they're not exactly Google. The only way they would win i…

It did have a positive impact though because AT&T and Verizon started actually building out their fiber networks more aggressively when they saw google entering the space. I live in Orange County, CA and AT&T out here started building out fiber when they saw Google building in Irvine, CA. AT&T knows that if they could just "rope off" google to a small area then their initial investment wouldn't really be worth it.

AT&T and Verizon started actually building out their fiber networks more aggressively when they saw google entering the space

That doesn't seem to mean anything when all the company cares about is next quarter's stock performance.

When I moved to Seattle, Verizon had recently abandoned its fiber network there, and my neighbors were so mad about it that they didn't trust any ISP.

I tried to Google it, but Big G disappoints. Perhaps someone who lived in Seattle (especially the East Side) and remembers this can shed some light on it.

Re: Visible signs left after Google Fiber abandons Louisville

#122

Post by edwhitesell »

jedberg wrote: post #100
edwhitesell wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the past, the answer was sometimes. About 6 years ago I lived in a Dallas suburb where I had ATT fiber directly to my house. A friend a few miles away, in Dallas, had copper. We had the same services, same prices, same hardware, etc.

That was their DSL service though right? like 100MB? Not gigabit? I'm talking about the gigabit service specifically. I don't think they run those with copper, because the spec says you can't go more than 100m on copper and get gig speeds.

Hmm, maybe I guess. It was all under the U-Verse brand at the time. I remember they offered something like a 150Mb download, but it was around $300/month.

Re: Visible signs left after Google Fiber abandons Louisville

#123

Post by OldHand2018 »

MiddleEndian wrote: post #60
paxys wrote: post #6

The failure of Google Fiber paints a very bleak picture of the future of internet infrastructure, or even all communication in this country. If Google cannot compete with the status quo, who can?

I live in Boston, where Google had a service called WebPass which was fiber with radio dishes for the last mile. They eventually gave up on our market, but two other radio fiber ISPs exist$. So Google isn't the necessarily the best competitor in that market. $ Due to a wacky series of misunderstandings, both of these ISPs service my building now that Webpass is gone. They periodically send out sales reps who bring sn…

There was an existing company called WebPass that Google bought. As far as I can tell, they got rid of all the local sales and support in the dozens of cities they operated in (presumably to fold all that into their existing Google Fiber org). It was a total failure.

Re: Visible signs left after Google Fiber abandons Louisville

#124

Post by dwighttk »

sesutton wrote: post #96
yingw787 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do think the significance of this is cities realizing there is no Disney prince riding in on a white horse to save them, and taking their own futures into their own hands. I'm hoping there's enough "anchor cities/regions", like Nashville/RTP/Kansas City, that have contingency plans and referendums ready for an infrastructure push at the local level if Fiber pulls out there, to prevent all white-collar talent from d…

I think people here in Raleigh would hardly notice if Google Fiber pulled out. They only ever offered it in a very small area and AT&T has been offering gigabit to to large parts of the area for several years now.

Yeah, in Durham, I've seen a lot of AT&T guys running fiber... I've only gotten a Google T-Shirt and seen an apparently empty office space downtown with a Google Fiber sign in the window.

Re: Visible signs left after Google Fiber abandons Louisville

#125

Post by dwighttk »

KennyFromIT wrote: post #90
esmi wrote: post #13

I wish they provided some details on why the San Antonio and Nashville small trials didn’t scale to Louisville. If the issues were really so glaring and obvious it seems those efforts should have revealed them. Edit: Looks like it didn’t actually work in those cities either. One wonders why the Louisville representatives missed this. https://www.wsmv.com/news/repaving-streets-reveal-google-fib...

Louisville's representatives likely missed that because they were wearing rose-colored glasses. They were thinking "big picture" about would a successful project could mean for the city and were ignoring the details. They were probably (rightly?) assuming that an organization like Google would be able to learn from their mistakes and "this time would be different". Really, it's hard to fault them for thinking this wa…

hoping to get something for their $400K investment.

Re: Visible signs left after Google Fiber abandons Louisville

#126

Post by onetimemanytime »

ilovecaching wrote: post #98

Let’s not forget that the real issue here is that American ISPs are a complete monopoly by Comcast and AT&T, companies made of pure greed. Small end sub ISPs have to claw for every strand of dark fiber. Google really shouldn’t be the answer though. We need to demand that politicians address the issue in the upcoming election before they start looking at the Silicon Valley giants.

On the other hand, they laid the cables first, a very expensive undertaking.

Re: Visible signs left after Google Fiber abandons Louisville

#127

Post by dwighttk »

greedo wrote: post #104

My city negotiated a fiber contract with Allo that was very favorable to the city. Allo basically provides free internet to municipal buildings for the right to sell fiber to residential areas. The entire city is almost covered (300K people), and rates are very affordable ($90/month for 1gig symmetrical). Allo also sells tv and phone service as well. I've been extremely happy. Allo provided the CPE at no cost, doesn'…

I thought Google just canceled Allo the other day...

Re: Visible signs left after Google Fiber abandons Louisville

#128

Post by OldHand2018 »

kasey_junk wrote: post #88
tptacek wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The current telecom providers, who compete with each other? If you compare similarly dense areas in the US and Europe, we're doing pretty well on high-speed Internet access. I have multiple gigabit options in Chicago, and only got them in the last couple years. What's not working?

It’s rare in Chicago to have multiple fiber options and lots of the city has none. I don’t necessarily disagree with your point but your experience may be on the rare side.

You may not have multiple fiber options all over the city, but its really common to have at least 2 high speed options. Chicago doesn't have a cable or telephone monopoly, so you've always had the option of Comcast or RCN and AT&T or Verizon. They all offer internet these days.

All the railroad right of ways are loaded with fiber, the freight tunnels are loaded with fiber, etc.

If you are downtown, you can add the half dozen or so fully competent local ISPs. These companies sell internet to condo associations; every unit gets a dedicated connection and the common areas get shared wifi. The cost gets added to the monthly assessment. Where I live it's $25 per month for 500 meg symmetrical.

I work in a 1920s skyscraper in the Loop. Cogent stops by at least once a year and puts coffee and (expensive) donuts in the lobby. They'll run fiber directly from their backbone to a server rack on whatever floor your office is on.

Re: Visible signs left after Google Fiber abandons Louisville

#129

Post by ggm »

Long time ago, the campus I worked at was offered "the deal of the century" from Dec to buy FDDI cards for all campus. A really sweet deal, only $5000 per host..

The moral of the story: beware geeks bearing gifts. Google should have been put into a contract to only field-test shallow trenches, if they committed to remediation into deep trenches at their own buck.

"they would have gone somewhere else" is the voice of Amazon city bidding nonsense: this is public utility infrastructure. They ballsed it up, they should have been contractually obligated to get it right.

If it was a testbed freebie, different story. You let somebody in to test something for free? Sure. Public Liability? sure. Disappointed customers? Sure.

Hang on.. who are they disappointed in? the elected Lousville Officials?

Re: Visible signs left after Google Fiber abandons Louisville

#130

Post by ilovecaching »

onetimemanytime wrote: post #126
ilovecaching wrote: post #98

Let’s not forget that the real issue here is that American ISPs are a complete monopoly by Comcast and AT&T, companies made of pure greed. Small end sub ISPs have to claw for every strand of dark fiber. Google really shouldn’t be the answer though. We need to demand that politicians address the issue in the upcoming election before they start looking at the Silicon Valley giants.

On the other hand, they laid the cables first, a very expensive undertaking.

Thanks to huge government subsidies that they squandered. They have promised time and time again to build better infra for hundreds of millions in tax payer dollars and we still have total crap. People who work for them are morally bankrupt.
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