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Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

fiber.google.com

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Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#211

Post by sadga »

hoka wrote: post #64
Xcelerate wrote: post #25

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…

Yeah, Google's going to have to do a good job telling people their computers and NICs aren't going to cut it. It's amazing when you're limited by your machine instead of the internet!

Who doesn't have a gigabit NIC? They've been standard for years.

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#213

Post by fourmii »

philwelch wrote: post #94
api wrote: post #29

Thank GOD they're disrupting this industry. All the telcos are worthless "Soviet bureaus" that deserve death. It's really sort of amazing to think about. In all my years on this planet I have never been pleased with a telecom company. Never. I have always felt like I was paying far too much for inferior service, contemptible customer support, and endless efforts to further "monetize" me through harassing phone calls…

Be careful what you wish for. I'm dubious of getting any kind of service from a company known for not having any kind of customer service whatsoever.

Anything is better than the rubbish we currently get from Comcast...

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#214

Post by joshAg »

potatolicious wrote: post #164
paulitex wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is not a single other industry I can say that about, certainly not one that comes to mind so quickly. Airlines? > contemptible customer support IMHO better than Google's dogmatic avoidance of any kind of customer support.

> "Airlines?" Heh. Flying is a terrible experience because what most people pay for is the transportation equivalent of a Wal-Mart jar of pickles. The price of flying, especially as a proportion of income, has tanked since the golden age we all yearn for. There's a reason airlines no longer serve meals, give out free pillows, and are still going bankrupt every few years - the margins are razor thin and the competitio…

> If you paid as much now as you did for the same flight in the 70s, you'd still get the very same service.

I believe they call it first-class now. I had the opportunity to purchase a first class upgrade (first time not flying economy) on an Alaska flight from Seattle to Oakland, and the service difference between the coach experience just two days prior was insane.

There was no meal in coach (flying during breakfast), and the attendants came around once for drinks and once for trash. They were polite, but didn't make much small talk because they were pretty busy.

In first class, there was a complementary meal served on a ceramic plate with metal silverware (this flight was well after dinner), and a variety of complementary alcoholic drinks were offered as well. The attendants called you by your name (they verified the name from the flight manifest was correct the first time they came around), and they made small talk about your trip.

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#215

Post by [deleted] »

bound008 wrote: post #194
api wrote: post #29

Thank GOD they're disrupting this industry. All the telcos are worthless "Soviet bureaus" that deserve death. It's really sort of amazing to think about. In all my years on this planet I have never been pleased with a telecom company. Never. I have always felt like I was paying far too much for inferior service, contemptible customer support, and endless efforts to further "monetize" me through harassing phone calls…

They are not doing much of a job of disrupting the tv part of the deal. $120/mo with Comcast gets you the same channels, Internet, dvr, and telephone service with no contract. They also have customer service. When you call Comcast about a service outage, they prorate it every single time. The real disruption here is free Internet. And for that I tip my hat to google. Disruption to cable would be a la carte channel se…

[deleted]

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#217

Post by drivingmenuts »

I want this in Austin. Now. Yesterday.

Seriously, the customer service is a non-issue. You can't do any worse than the telcos/cablecos other than having zero customer service ever.

If this forces the entrenched companies to man up and throw down some fiber, it's worth whatever it costs as long as no one is getting physically injured.

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#218

Post by zzleeper »

jawns wrote: post #197
maratd wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> contemptible customer support Because Google will be so much better? Look, I hate telcos just like the next guy, but the suckage is mostly due to the nature of the business. They form natural monopolies and that sort of thing doesn't lead to customer satisfaction. The only way that sector is going to get truly disrupted is through gigabit wireless internet. You can have multiple competitors in one space with compar…

I looked up price bashing (using Google, haha) and didn't get satisfactory results. Can you provide a link that gives a good explanation?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumping_(pricing_policy) maybe this is what he meant

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#219

Post by zupreme »

Here's a good quote from a friend of mine, Craig Clausen of New Paradigm Resources Group (a market research firm specializing in telecom):

"This is more of a strategic play for Google. As they mentioned, there are three essential components to the Internet (i.e. Google’s business model): Computing power, cloud storage and access. The first two have worked in Google’s favor. The third hasn’t kept pace. The telcos and other access providers (like the cablecos) don’t care about what’s good for Google and broadband speeds aren’t where Google would like them to be. As they’ve done in similar situations (such as wireless and energy), Google is signaling to the telcos that, while they’d prefer not to be in the telecom business, they are certainly capable of doing so. Picking Kansas City – smack dab in the middle of the country – has less to do with Kansas City showing the most interest and more about being able to distribute that message evenly between the coasts. It’s a different type of investment for Google – one in which they hope to spur the access providers into stepping it up or risk having the guy with the deepest pockets step in for them."

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#220

Post by dudus »

Xcelerate wrote: post #25

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 The same thing was said about floppy disks and RAM in the past. The reality is that the demand expands to fill whatever you have available and still ask for more. Once we have blazing fast speeds like that someone will come up with a crazy idea that will require still more bandwidth and lower latency.
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