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Google Fiber announced for Provo, Utah

fiber.google.com

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Re: Google Fiber announced for Provo, Utah

#92
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think one of the things I'm most excited for is canceling my absurd Comcast agreement.

Yep. I pay 60 bucks a month for 40 Mbps, and Google offers 1 Gbps for 70 bucks a month. I pay almost the same price for 4% the speed (not to mention horrible customer service).

and I pay around 80 in TN for 25 mbps

Re: Google Fiber announced for Provo, Utah

#93

I'm glad that this is gonna be so close to the Bluffdale, UT NSA data center. Now they wont even have to build too much of their own cable to listen in on every single packet!

The fact that this is close to Bluffdale only helps support (just a little bit) the likely thesis that Google has decided to ally itself with the US surveillance state (which is probably has little choice about anyway).

Re: Google Fiber announced for Provo, Utah

#95

I can see how buying fiber networks like this helps their implementation strategy, but Provo where? I've literally never heard of this town. I'm wondering if these Google Fiber experiments wouldn't be more impactful if they weren't in big cities. KC and Austin are good choices with solid tech centers to see innovation from high network speeds, but Provo, Utah? Really?

Provo, Madison, Boulder seem like pretty ideal candidates for this kind of thing -- techie, fairly small (well, Boulder is borderline), relatively sane local government, good potential takeup.

KC actually seems like the outlier, due to size and a larger range of incomes/education.

Bellevue, WA might work, too, or college towns like Blacksburg, Pasadena, Cambridge, Urbana-Champaign, and near some of the National Labs. (Is Huntsville still an outlier for the state?)

Orlando would be interesting, or even the Disney-specific district, due to tourism, along with obviously Las Vegas. Selfishly I'd love it if they did Hawaii.

Re: Google Fiber announced for Provo, Utah

#96

I'm glad that this is gonna be so close to the Bluffdale, UT NSA data center. Now they wont even have to build too much of their own cable to listen in on every single packet!

This is an important point that will be ignored. But who cares since we can to sign into our facebooks with fiber internet, right?

Re: Google Fiber announced for Provo, Utah

#97

Good god I hope these announcements light a fire under the butts of the other US providers.

How could it? Google would own the infrastructure in the city making competition extremely difficult. New monopolist, same as the old monopolist.

Except that the "new monopolist" is currently thrashing the "old monopolist". It's almost like they are having to... compete.

Also, they bought out a municipal fiber outfit. They're not kicking competitors out. They're just completely outclassing them.

Re: Google Fiber announced for Provo, Utah

#99

Good god I hope these announcements light a fire under the butts of the other US providers.

In non-Fiber cities, has anyone seen a change in price from the big providers like Time Warner Cable? Anecdotally, I haven't seen one.

Completely anecdotal, but Comcast just bumped me up about 30% from 15 mbps. The customer service still stinks, and the service itself is still very spotty and unreliable.

Re: Google Fiber announced for Provo, Utah

#100
post #93

I'm glad that this is gonna be so close to the Bluffdale, UT NSA data center. Now they wont even have to build too much of their own cable to listen in on every single packet!

The fact that this is close to Bluffdale only helps support (just a little bit) the likely thesis that Google has decided to ally itself with the US surveillance state (which is probably has little choice about anyway).

It seems fact at this point :(

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/05/google-nsa-secrecy-...

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