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Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

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Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#81
post #10

The cable channel lineup looks limited (no ESPN? can you add HBO?), so I wonder if they will get much adoption there. Internet pricing looks fantastic.

According to The Verge: "There's a basic version with network channels and some basic cable, on up to the movie channels like HBO." So it looks like you can get HBO...

Source: http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/26/3188845/google-fiber-tv

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#82
post #53

When I was at Georgia Tech, I got 650 Mbps. You realize the bottleneck isn't your connection at that point -- it's everyone else's. Which means a lot of sites still download just as slow. Although the big sites have optimized data centers, so it was pretty cool downloading an entire OS in a few seconds (although I think my hard drive write speed limited that a bit too). My father works in the fiber optics industry an…

> every person would have more bandwidth than they knew what to do with. I think that is exactly the point. That's why they are doing this; Google doesn't know what exactly will happen when everyone in the USA/world has fiber connections, but they do know that incredible innovation will come. What kind of applications will be built? What kind of applications can be built? Couple this with the increasing computing pow…

I fear, the surplus bandwidth will be simply wasted, just like the enormous computing power of modern desktop CPUs.

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#83
Does this alter the trend towards mobile? Maybe not in terms of the kind of device you use - it might still be a tablet or a phone-like device - but in terms of data delivered over mobile telephony networks?

Perhaps part of the reason that my iPhone can compete with my desktop is that home internet is just so terrible. Maybe there will be a whole new class of bandwidth hungry apps that can't be duplicated in anything going over a phone network.

In places like Korea I believe they have high bandwidth fiber everywhere; what's the experience there?

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#84
While I am super happy that the cable industry is getting disrupted as it deserves to be(the wireless industry sucks too, maybe a tech company can buy TMobile or Sprint), I feel uneasy about the following two points:

1) Profitability: I wonder how profitable and sustainable this is for Google? They can subsidize it for only so long before deciding to discontinue it as has been happening to many of their services recently.

2) With Google as your ISP and TV channel provider, they will have the potential to know everything about you, probably even more than you know about yourself! Imagine you use all their services, they will know about your surfing habits(via ISP, Google searches and clicks, G+ buttons, Google ads, Google analytics etc.), your location(Android location services/GPS. Google Maps), TV channel viewing habits, Gmail, social network(Google+), phone calls(Google voice), etc. etc. It will also provide malicious and state actors with a one stop shop to steal/request information from.

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#85
post #63

I might just be overcome with the sheer impressiveness of this but it feels like the real reason behind everything that Google has done over the last 5 or so years (Youtube, Android, Chromebook, buying dark fibre, Chrome, G+, tablets etc.) has suddenly come in to crystal clear focus. They're going for the jugular with a grand unified strategy the likes of which the tech industry has never seen before.

There has been a good discussion on the previous article: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4293530

w1ntermute has a comment that has been highly up-voted:

"I don't know about you, but I'll take Google over Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, etc. any day of the week, regardless of their conflicts of interest."

Google may have an impressive business strategy, but they haven't done anything to lock out a competitor. Google has tough competition in every single area you have listed.

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#86
I guess living in Montreal means I'm not getting a piece of this action any time soon.

It had the merit of making me reconsider how I live my life though. When you think about moving to another country, even for just one quick second, for an internet service, it's probably way too central to your way of life to be healthy.

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#87
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how much money Google can make from a single household that is using Google products on the internet? As long as Google makes more money over time than the internet connection costs them, then it could be a very profitable for Google to increase the number of people using Google products and gain great product PR and brand loyalty from these people who get free internet.

Yep, how much monitoring and data collection is Google doing here? I wouldn't sign up for Google provided internet.

Here's the privacy policy: https://fiber.google.com/legal/privacy.html

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#88
The country of Australia is spending over $31 billion on a project called the National Broadband Network (NBN) to bring fiber directly to 97% of homes. That project is enormous in scale compared to the Kansas City experiment.

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#89
post #58

Does anyone know how they make money from the free option?

It's laying the fiber that's the expensive part, and there is a $300 fee to pay for that. In terms of marginal cost, it really doesn't cost them anything to serve another 5MB/1MB connection. They want to get you hooked so you'll want to upgrade later.

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#90
post #53

When I was at Georgia Tech, I got 650 Mbps. You realize the bottleneck isn't your connection at that point -- it's everyone else's. Which means a lot of sites still download just as slow. Although the big sites have optimized data centers, so it was pretty cool downloading an entire OS in a few seconds (although I think my hard drive write speed limited that a bit too). My father works in the fiber optics industry an…

> every person would have more bandwidth than they knew what to do with. I think that is exactly the point. That's why they are doing this; Google doesn't know what exactly will happen when everyone in the USA/world has fiber connections, but they do know that incredible innovation will come. What kind of applications will be built? What kind of applications can be built? Couple this with the increasing computing pow…

If you build it, they will come.
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