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Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

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Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#371

Post by praxulus »

notaddicted wrote: post #307
drcube wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I wouldn't consider $300 up front "free". It's an amortized price, similar to XM Radio's $400 lifetime subscription fee. Frankly, I'd like to see more amortized pricing like this.

I'm cynical about this kind of pricing. Once you've paid up, in the companies' books you're in the minus column until the end of time. Incentives are no longer aligned. Combine this with the way that telcos treat regular paying customers ... I wouldn't like to put myself in that position, even with a company that tries to be aggressively benevolent.

Just about every single person who uses the internet in any way is in Google's positive column. They might not be a positive for the Fiber division alone, but given where the vast majority of Google's income comes from, Fiber will have a lot of pressure to keep customers happy.

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#372

Post by gonehome »

guelo wrote: post #244
drzaiusapelord wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm actually somewhat content with my broadband options. No, I'm not ecstatic and am glad this is happening but PLEASE someone disrupt the damn cell phone business. My ISP doesn't install software on my computer, doesn't hit me with mystery fees, and doesn't tell MS or Apple what to do, but cell carriers do all these things and more. >and endless efforts to further "monetize" me through harassing phone calls trying t…

Google tried to disrupt the cell phone industry by bidding $4 billion on the old TV frequency auction but they were cockblocked by the shitty Bush-era FCC and collusion between ATT and Verizon. Makes you wonder how things would have been different, would Apple have sold the iPhone on the Google network?

Google wanted to lose that bid - that was a gamble to get free whitespace access and have verizon pay enough money for it. You can read more of the details in this book:http://www.amazon.com/In-The-Plex-Google-Thinks/dp/141659658...

Additionally Google did try to disrupt the cellular companies a little by selling their phones unlocked through their own webstore, but the American market didn't buy them. Yes there really is only one network that gave you a deal if you did this (T-Mobile), but Americans seem to prefer subsidized phones with absurd monthly plans rather than paying for the phone up front and being free to choose the network.

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#373

Post by notatoad »

ricardobeat wrote: post #274
notatoad wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TelCo call centers are universally useless. Google could have a phone number you call and a robot on the other end that informs you of service disruptions and tells you to turn it off and turn it on again, and they would have better service than most ISPs.

My local TelCo, despite being shitty, plays a recorded message everytime there are specific issues affecting the area.

most telcos do that. the problem is usually that they are too vague to be of any use. i've called telus before and gotten the message "we are currently experiencing service intteruptions in some areas". thanks guys, that helps.

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#374

Post by brc »

sadga wrote: post #208
potatolicious wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "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…

Airline bankruptcy is a normal business activity, akin to an occasional server refresh in the data center.. It doesn't disrupt the overall airline industry, and it's not a catastrophe to a bankrupt airline. http://philip.greenspun.com/flying/unions-and-airlines

I read that Warren Buffet said he has a full-time employee whose job it is to stop him from buying any airlines.

Probably one of his pithy quotes, but funny all the same.

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#375

Post by jiggy2011 »

1 Gigabit Download and Upload!

I have always believed that the internet would have been and fundamentally different place if we had fast upload from the beginning.

Rather than having everything in the cloud (i.e big corporate datacenters) people would have gotten used to running small server at home. After all was the web not originally designed to work more in this way?

This would have fostered a much better culture of privacy and freedom when you have ultimate control of what you are putting online, freedom from TOS etc. Sure there are advantages to big datacenters such as backup and fireproofing etc but is every piece of data really that precious?

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#376

Post by splicer »

gddr wrote: post #354
neurotech1 wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"That free tier? That is outright illegal and its sole purpose is to eradicate all competition." Why don't we sue Google for providing free WiFi in Mountain View? And Google Fiber isn't free - its $300 to cover the equipment costs. I'm pretty that 12 months of basic DSL for less than $300 anyway, installation included. Some neighbors will "freely" share their internet, should incumbent cable co sue them aswell for un…

It's funny, because in my (shitty) country, we have a "communications industry regulator" that basically does only this: sue people who give free internet. Well I get 30Mbps for less than 40€/month, so I can't complain I guess...

I pay $50 Canadian per month for a 2.1 Mbps connection :(

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#377

Post by maayank »

Kerrick wrote: post #283
csmeder wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe once you have tried Gigabit (GIGABIT!) internet, on a daily basis you won't feel the same. Cloud storage and a bunch of other things will now feel very different. - Why own a computer when you can just vpn into a cluster through a thin client? - Why own a game system... - Stream 4k HD movies - A whole bunch of ideas not thought of yet. 0r maybe your right and it wont be that different, I would like the chance t…

> Why own a game system... There's actually a service called "OnLive" that streams games, it seems pretty cool. It's a mashup between Steam and Netflix; you don't have to have a gaming PC to render the frames, just a fast Internet connection to stream them.

I... I just played Civ 5 there on a whim after googling for that service and it's pretty amazing. My jaw dropped. I'm on a 20mbps download and 1.5mbps upload for whatever it's worth. Also, the app warned me of being on an high latency connection (I don't know their threshold) but the videos and the game are smooth.

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#379

Post by dcposch »

guelo wrote: post #244
drzaiusapelord wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm actually somewhat content with my broadband options. No, I'm not ecstatic and am glad this is happening but PLEASE someone disrupt the damn cell phone business. My ISP doesn't install software on my computer, doesn't hit me with mystery fees, and doesn't tell MS or Apple what to do, but cell carriers do all these things and more. >and endless efforts to further "monetize" me through harassing phone calls trying t…

Google tried to disrupt the cell phone industry by bidding $4 billion on the old TV frequency auction but they were cockblocked by the shitty Bush-era FCC and collusion between ATT and Verizon. Makes you wonder how things would have been different, would Apple have sold the iPhone on the Google network?

So much glorious Schadenfreude at the thought of all the panic meetings at Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon today. And probably a lot of other places as well.

My experinces with all three of those companies have been horrendous. =====================================================================

1. It took a month of weekly calls to get a refund from Comcast for a "modem installation". My apartment already had a modem, they literally installed nothing and charged me $80 for it.

2. It took me four months to realize that I had an overdue AT&T bill. Despite having my phone number (obviously), my email, my credit card info, and my other phone number, they just sent paper snail mail to my summer internship apartment, where of course I no longer lived. I found out four months later when I finally did get a phone call---from a collections agency. The bill had swelled from $90 to $250 by this point.

3. Verizon sent a phone I ordered online to the wrong address. (They skipped the apt number, so the phone was returned to sender.) They then proceeded to refund the phone, but charge me monthly charges for the plan! This, too, took a month of weekly calls.

Every single time I called any of these three companies, I had to sit and listen to elevator music for 3 to 30 minutes. Every individual rep starts over from the beginning, asking you your "first and last name please", as if they had no CRM, no DB, no internal communication whatsover.

It is highly gratifying to see these companies get bitchslapped by the Invisible Hand. They have long deserved it.

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