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Why Google makes the perfect ISP

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Re: Why Google makes the perfect ISP

#31

Post by yannickt »

pwny wrote: post #8

Whether they succeed or not with Fiber, whether it expands to every American city or not and whether they get sued because of antitrust laws (which I don't believe they will), the fact is that they're changing the status quo. Even only scaring the telecom companies enough for them to offer decent plans is a win for Google AND for the customer. Sure Google pursues its own commercial goals but in the end it benefits th…

"The biggest selling point here (in Canada)"

I hope Fiber comes to Canada, but I fear protectionist legislation will get in the way.

Re: Why Google makes the perfect ISP

#32

Post by pwny »

yannickt wrote: post #31
pwny wrote: post #8

Whether they succeed or not with Fiber, whether it expands to every American city or not and whether they get sued because of antitrust laws (which I don't believe they will), the fact is that they're changing the status quo. Even only scaring the telecom companies enough for them to offer decent plans is a win for Google AND for the customer. Sure Google pursues its own commercial goals but in the end it benefits th…

"The biggest selling point here (in Canada)" I hope Fiber comes to Canada, but I fear protectionist legislation will get in the way.

You're absolutely right, that's one of my fears as well.

That's up for another debate, but there's a point where legislation shouldn't interfere. If we're stuck with awful service because of the law, it's time the law (which should be serving us citizens) got changed.

Re: Why Google makes the perfect ISP

#34

Post by ajross »

kodablah wrote: post #21

If I were a potential customer, my biggest fear would be customer service. There is a track record of no-human-contact service disabling; especially with "free" products. If Google shuts down an ad-sense account for perceived violation without good justification or interaction, how can I expect them not to do the same with my internet for an unjust DMCA complaint?

Indeed. There is much fear and uncertainty about Google's proposed service. You are right to doubt them.

Re: Why Google makes the perfect ISP

#35

Post by rickmb »

Google's core business is advertising. Google likes to do stuff with the data that passes through its systems. Google has explicitly and pro-actively taken sides in fight against copyright violations instead of remaining a neutral party.

And they've been less than steadfast on Net Neutrality, which is a big red flag for a company that wants to be an ISP.

This is not about Google being "evil", but I do not want a company with that mindset and those interests to be my ISP. It's going to be very tough, if not impossible to separate those.

I know this is already common practice in the US, with many of the major (cable) ISP's being part of companies that having a direct stake in copyright exploitation, advertising etcetera.

So ask yourself: how's that working out for you so far? Would Google really be any better?

Re: Why Google makes the perfect ISP

#36

Post by ajross »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #17
pwny wrote: post #8

Whether they succeed or not with Fiber, whether it expands to every American city or not and whether they get sued because of antitrust laws (which I don't believe they will), the fact is that they're changing the status quo. Even only scaring the telecom companies enough for them to offer decent plans is a win for Google AND for the customer. Sure Google pursues its own commercial goals but in the end it benefits th…

Indeed. It's the same as their chrome gambit. Releasing chrome kicked the IE development team into gear and lit a fire under firefox's ass. Today if I launch any of the 3 most popular browsers on this machine each of them will score 100/100 on the acid 3 test and render it smoothly and seamlessly. That certainly wasn't the case when chrome 1.0 was released a bit more than 3 years ago. Now the installed base of folks…

It's a total digression, but this brings a tear to my eye too. Kids today will never know the suffering that was endured by their predecessors.

Re: Why Google makes the perfect ISP

#37

Post by ArbitraryLimits »

pwny wrote: post #30
ArbitraryLimits wrote: post #26

Let's take a poll: How many people here understand that Google is doing this because Internet connections are a complement of your personal data, which they would like to monetize, and not out of the goodness of their hearts?

Let's take a poll: How many people here understand that Google is a corporation and therefore has making money as its primary goal? Seriously, what would be wrong from a corporate standpoint would be for Google to be doing this out of the goodness of their heart, not the opposite. You don't like it, don't use it. I bet you'll have a real easy time finding someone to pull fiber to your house and provide you with gigab…

I wasn't complaining that Google is a nameless, faceless, soulless corporation just like the ISPs, just trying to remind people.

Re: Why Google makes the perfect ISP

#38

Post by dannyr »

kodablah wrote: post #21

If I were a potential customer, my biggest fear would be customer service. There is a track record of no-human-contact service disabling; especially with "free" products. If Google shuts down an ad-sense account for perceived violation without good justification or interaction, how can I expect them not to do the same with my internet for an unjust DMCA complaint?

Look at the previous Google threads and those who have used its customer service recently were pretty happy with it.

Google's support was awful a few years but it looks like they improved with time.

Re: Why Google makes the perfect ISP

#39

Post by PaulHoule »

VikingCoder wrote: post #14
PaulHoule wrote: post #2

There's always been a touch of Willy Wonka style unreality about Google Fiber. Municipalities across the U.S. know that their broadband sucks, and they wrote proposals to Google in lieu of real action, hoping Google could solve their problems with their magic wand. Google still has a "non-evil" and academic reputation in some quarters, although anybody who makes a living on the streets of the internet knows that Goog…

> anybody who makes a living on the streets of the internet knows that Google is the most dangerous and rapacious company on the net. I make a living on the streets of the internet, and could not disagree more with your conclusion. You don't speak for everyone, because you certainly don't speak for me.

I'll say that you can have good times for a while with the "Big G" but there will come a day when they need to post better numbers for their investors and they decide the little bit of margin from their ecosystem belongs to them.

Back in the 1990's, venture capitalists wouldn't fund any company that competed with Microsoft. For quite a long time, there's been no funding for companies that compete with Google. Thus, there's a "lost generation" of companies that have never gotten off the ground since to Google's dominance of the web landscape.

Re: Why Google makes the perfect ISP

#40

Post by funthree »

A company like Google could make a better ISP, but to cheer a growing internet monopoly just seems ridiculous.

> Free internet at today's average speeds

> $300 construction fee (one time or 12 monthly payments of $25) + taxes and fees

Google is going full circle. I wonder if the cost for Google to give internet to people who didn't otherwise have it (and at no charge to them) actually paid dividends very soon because that person is going to immediately generate new revenue for google from the inevitable use of Google/adwords. I think John D. Rockefeller would tip his hat, tbh.

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