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Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

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421–430 of 487 posts

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#421
post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Airlines enforce minimum check-in times of 1.5 hrs Holy shit that is insane! Here in Australia I just get there 20 mins before take-off and pretty much walk straight onto the plane. They xray my hand-luggage and I walk through a metal detector on the way but that never takes more than a couple of minutes.

The budget airlines in Aus require you to be there 30 minutes before take-off. I've missed a flight because of this; I was about five minutes late. I got on the next flight but the T&C clearly state they have no obligation to make it up in any way.

Still much better than 90 minutes!

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#422

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You didn't even list the big stuff. In the short term we get the benefits you describe. In the long term the way we build cities and thus live our lives changes for the better as they become denser and much more space efficient.

Denser cities sounds like a con to me. I would much prefer to not be 2 inches from my neighbor.

A con by whom? Obviously, you may not enjoy living close to other people and will choose to live in lower density areas. Fair enough, and, at least in the US, we're not short on space. (I will only add that density is typically measured as people per square foot of ground, meaning you might simply be above and below your neighbors). But creating environments where people can live in higher densities can't be a bad thing.

And the benefits are manifold for those who do want to live in cities. Diversity of options is a big one--that food truck that serves gluten-free venison tacos can only exist somewhere with enough people that such a niche can survive, so the long tail of preferences can be accommodated. Infrastructure is in dense places is cheaper per capita; tearing up one road/pipe/sewer can benefit thousands of people instead of just whoever lives in that one cul-de-sac. Public transportation becomes more practical, enabling people to go where they want cheaper and more easily. A higher concentration of jobs and workers means there can be a better matching of needs and skills, making businesses more successful and workers happier.

So sure, you may wish to forgo all that to have a yard and some space. I'm sure the housing market and broadband companies will oblige. But in general, practical dense cities will be a boon to society, from which we'll all benefit.

Edit: clarity.

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#423
post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The free tier? That's $300 up front. I expect some of that $300 defrays their ongoing marginal costs. See also sibling comments by eavc and EthanHeilman. Free Internet $0/mo $300 construction fee (one time or $25/mo for 12 mo)

From what I've read, FTTH installation costs over $700 per house so $300 doesn't sound like it's defraying much.

According to Gigaom the $300 more than fully covers the installation cost...

http://gigaom.com/2012/07/26/the-economics-of-google-fiber-a...

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#424
post #205

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…

> My ISP doesn't install software on my computer, ... Not for lack of trying. I recently helped my friend set up Comcast and part of the installation process included downloading a required suite of "configuration" software. We were able to figure out a way around it but most people probably just click through without a thought.

Tell me about it. I just got a comcast connection a couple of weeks ago and comcast has been, seemingly at random, kicking me into a captive portal that tries to scare you into installing their software.

The worst part is that it only keeps me in the captive portal just short enough that I haven't been compelled to figure out how to make dd-wrt stop it yet. I'll be sitting there putzing around on the Internet, try to google something and hit their portal. A few refreshes later and I'll be back in business.

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#425
post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 :(

Canadian telcos seem to be universally worse than their US brethren, as they appear to be aided and abetted by a corrupt CRTC (Canadian FCC). Witness the CRTCs approval of bandwidth caps in order to delay/prevent users from moving to internet-only plans and using Netflix for their entertainment. [http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2011/11/15/crtc-ubb-ruling_n_10...]

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#426

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…

Why own a game system?

Ping.

You may have a point with the rest, but response time is a really big deal with many games and a large amount of bandwidth doesn't actually mean a super amazing ping. And actually the speed of light presents ping issues that are meaningful to games so you will never ever be able to just locate computers anywhere and connect to them to play.

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#427
If this pans out it'll be a huge boost for civilization for one reason:

The distributed internet. Today the internet as a transport layer is a multiply redundant mesh, to some degree, but the content of the internet is still highly centralized.

Now imagine a world 25 years from now where everyone has >100 mbit/s internet connections and multi-terabyte SSD (or memristor) drives are commonplace and cheap. Now the idea of caching huge chunks of the internet starts not only making sense but becomes imminently practical. Web sites will be viewed less like applications and more like git repos with front-ends.

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#428
post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

My grandmother had a phone that she was renting for decades. That phone cost thousands of dollars by the time my mom explained to her that she was allowed to replace it with a purchased phone. AT&T forced people to get their phones from AT&T for decades, until regulation forced them to stop that practice, and even after that they continued to bill people for those phones...often older folks who didn't understand their bills or their rights. That's not poor support, that's evil. Of course, AT&T had a state-sponsored monopoly, so it wasn't all their fault...something about state+corporate cooperation makes everybody involved behave in the worst possible way.

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#430
I wish, this could come up in India early , Internet is worse here. If you want high speed internet,the charges are too high to afford for common man. I remember before 5 years i used to download at 2 kbps :(, now it's better but not cheap
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