Google Fiber Plans & Pricing • Hacker News Board

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#381

Post by raldi » Fri, Jul 27, 2012, 12:26 AM UTC

gonehome wrote: post #372

guelo wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 rea…

"Prefer" is a stretch. It's not like consumers were presented with a choice between two carriers that were similar in every way except that one went with the subsidized model and the other did not.

The choice consumers had was either a crappy carrier, or one which forced you to go with absurd monthly plans.

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#382

Post by mrkurt » Fri, Jul 27, 2012, 12:26 AM UTC

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…

Google's currently doing the best job of anyone of disrupting the cell phone industry. I have a $350 unlocked, contract free handset that's near the best you can get right now and I can run it on any pay as you go plan (like a $45/mo Straight Talk plan).

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#383

Post by dkrich » Fri, Jul 27, 2012, 12:38 AM UTC

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…

How is this a disruption? Seems to me that they are building out their own fiber optic network to go toe-to-toe with the best-in-class internet/cable products on the market at a price point that doesn't really seem any better.

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#384

Post by dkrich » Fri, Jul 27, 2012, 12:41 AM UTC

csmeder wrote: post #268

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…

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…

This seems to go back-and-forth and I'm not quite ready to crown the streaming model king just yet. What happens when you have gigabit ethernet and a tablet that can hold 80 days worth of movies? Do you stream them or just download them instantaneously without regard to how much space they consume?

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#385

Post by KirinDave » Fri, Jul 27, 2012, 12:43 AM UTC

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?

That's not what happened.

Personally, I think the indicator for a serious bid at disrupting the wireless industry will be when a tech company buys Sprint.

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#386

Post by cjy » Fri, Jul 27, 2012, 12:45 AM UTC

maratd wrote: post #265

jawns wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Wow. I couldn't find anything either. Then again, I first learned about it in an economics book in the 90s ... and I think that book was from the 70s. Price bashing is when a competitor lowers prices to the point where they are losing money on the transaction. The desired effect is to destroy the competition and once the competition is eliminated, to raise prices to an artificially high level as a monopolist. EDIT: F…

There is little empirical support that predatory pricing happens. The criticism section of the Wikipedia article makes some strong arguments in this vein. The support section contains 3 "citation needed"'s.

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#387

Post by gcb » Fri, Jul 27, 2012, 12:50 AM UTC

dcposch wrote: post #379

guelo wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ,…

my at&t dsl 3mb down/760kb up costs me 24/mo, and that's because i wasted a lot of time researching how to get it without the extra 12/mo for a land line. (there's a secret phone number)

300/24 = 12.something... so if I paid upfront one year, i'd have 7 years of free internet... sounds like a hell of a good deal to me.

not to mention that at&t goes offline for 1~10min every day around 3pm and 10pm. oh yes, and i'm in a huge metropolitan area near L.A. and that's the only option i will have here.

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#388

Post by matwood » Fri, Jul 27, 2012, 1:03 AM UTC

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #200

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…

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…

For the most part I agree, but experience with broadband differs greatly depending on what area you happen to live. Even within the same company like Comcast, broadband in one state can be great and one state over can be horrible.

Cell companies on the other hand are basically crooks. Every other month I get 'services' added to my bill that should only get added if I respond to a spam text. Of course I never respond to the text, but somehow "Fact of the Day" for $9.99/month keeps getting added to my bill no matter how many times I call I tell them I will never subscribe to this so stop letting them attempt to fraud me. After a little research it turns out that the cell company can get 30%-40% of the subscription fees on these bogus services. So, of course they turn a blind eye on what isn't much better than stealing through fraud.

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#389

Post by msbarnett » Fri, Jul 27, 2012, 1:05 AM UTC

wmf wrote: post #315

chimeracoder wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're leaving out a very key point: because of an antitrust case against AT&T, they were forbidden from turning their non-telephone technology into proprietary products. In other words, they were essentially conducting research for the public interest at no real cost to the public . That's very different from any definition of a 'monopoly' that I'm aware of, and very different from modern network providers. Many fac…

No cost to the public? Instead of doing research they could have provided better support (or perhaps lower prices) to their actual customers .

Was Ma Bell's support actually bad?

The current company called AT&T obviously has appalling support, but I'm not old enough to have dealt with its previous incarnation.

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#390

Post by deveac » Fri, Jul 27, 2012, 1:21 AM UTC

dkrich wrote: post #383

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…

How is this a disruption? Seems to me that they are building out their own fiber optic network to go toe-to-toe with the best-in-class internet/cable products on the market at a price point that doesn't really seem any better.

>at a price point that doesn't really seem any better.

$70/mo for gigabit speeds and a terabyte of cloud storage and a wifi router? Or a one time installation fee for free internet comparable to what people are paying $50/mo for now?

Can you direct me to the pricing for the companies that are doing anything close to this? Really, I'd love to see it. Currently, the only thing comparable is Verizon FiOS at 300mbs for over $200/mo. http://www.digitaltrends.com/web/google-fiber-launches-in-ka...

This is the very definition of disruption.