When Google Fiber abandons your city as a failed experiment (2019)
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Re: When Google Fiber abandons your city as a failed experiment (2019)
#2Related article from the time: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/04/googl...
Google paid the city $3.8M to the city, for the city to clean up the mess themselves.
Re: When Google Fiber abandons your city as a failed experiment (2019)
#3Summary: Google tried to "nano"-trench Louisville, KY using 2" deep trenches (by comparison micro-trenching is typically 6" deep) then use epoxy to cover the trench. The epoxy didn't stand up to tires. Google tried to replace the epoxy with asphalt but that damaged the fiber. Google determined at that point that nano-trenching wouldn't work and didn't want to spend additional money to remedy the situation, so they abandoned Louisville.
My story in NC:
Aug 2015: Google Fiber sent me a T-shirt promising Fiber would be available soon!
Jan 2017: AT&T Fiber available to my address. $70/month for 1 Gbps.
Aug 2023: Google Fiber finally available at my address. $70/mo for 1 Gbps, $100/mo for 2 Gbps.
So yeah, Google got AT&T to get off their butts, but it took Google 8 years to get to my address. Meanwhile, AT&T is still $70/mo, includes HBO (er, Max), and is reliable, so I don't really have any reason to switch.
That said, I'm considering having GF installed anyway as long as they're in the neighborhood and running dual-WAN for a while. I can always cancel it and then my home is setup for both ISPs.
Re: When Google Fiber abandons your city as a failed experiment (2019)
#4Given their penchant for abandoning things on a whim, I never really understood why people would ever choose to use a service like this, from Google.
Re: When Google Fiber abandons your city as a failed experiment (2019)
#5Given their penchant for abandoning things on a whim, I never really understood why people would ever choose to use a service like this, from Google.
I can get new internet service easily enough, and it'll come with a sign-up bonus.
So if one service has significant advantages, I'll switch. Even if it might not last a long time.
Re: When Google Fiber abandons your city as a failed experiment (2019)
#6Given their penchant for abandoning things on a whim, I never really understood why people would ever choose to use a service like this, from Google.
Because it got other providers to get off their butts. Besides, it's relatively easy to switch providers anyway (where available).
I don't understand why people are scared of using services that have relatively low switching barriers, because they may be shut down one day.
I've used so many services over the years - big tech and from start ups that I've since moved form because they closed down or remained stagnant over better alternatives, and I never had to give it a second thought.
Re: When Google Fiber abandons your city as a failed experiment (2019)
#7Given their penchant for abandoning things on a whim, I never really understood why people would ever choose to use a service like this, from Google.
Because it got other providers to get off their butts. Besides, it's relatively easy to switch providers anyway (where available). I don't understand why people are scared of using services that have relatively low switching barriers, because they may be shut down one day. I've used so many services over the years - big tech and from start ups that I've since moved form because they closed down or remained stagnant o…
> I don't understand why people are scared of using services that have relatively low switching barriers, because they may be shut down one day.
This suggests there's alternative services available anyway, so why take the risk on Google at all?
Re: When Google Fiber abandons your city as a failed experiment (2019)
#8Summary: Google tried to "nano"-trench Louisville, KY using 2" deep trenches (by comparison micro-trenching is typically 6" deep) then use epoxy to cover the trench. The epoxy didn't stand up to tires. Google tried to replace the epoxy with asphalt but that damaged the fiber. Google determined at that point that nano-trenching wouldn't work and didn't want to spend additional money to remedy the situation, so they ab…
I'm not in the US, but in my country the fibre-provider and the ISP are unrelated companies. There are multiple fibre companies (typically an area is served by one or another of them although my area has two) and of course a couple dozen ISPs that do the ISP part.
This model works -really- well. ISPs compete on price, and service. Fibre folks do the physical stuff. Fibre companies are incentivised to get rolled out in an area first. ISPs can scale up without having to raise huge capital. And the roadside only gets dug up once (mostly the fibre is buried, although some makes use of existing pole infrastructure. )
It's one of those (rare?) cases where good regulation, and a free market collide, and the result us that everyone has fibre.
I say this not to gloat, but rather to show that it can be beneficial to separate access from service for best customer service.
[1] my first ISP went under. I switched to a new ISP within an hour after the cause of the outage was understood.
[2] a couple of outages have been ascribed to the fibre provider, the ISP escalates those for me, and have been rectified within the hour.
Who knew competition could lead to such good customer service...
Re: When Google Fiber abandons your city as a failed experiment (2019)
#9Summary: Google tried to "nano"-trench Louisville, KY using 2" deep trenches (by comparison micro-trenching is typically 6" deep) then use epoxy to cover the trench. The epoxy didn't stand up to tires. Google tried to replace the epoxy with asphalt but that damaged the fiber. Google determined at that point that nano-trenching wouldn't work and didn't want to spend additional money to remedy the situation, so they ab…
I also got the t-shirt from Google, when they announced they were coming to Austin. I don't remember which year that was.
Google did come to a couple of neighborhoods, but that's it.
And while that spurred the AT&T fiber sales critters to come out of the woodwork, that didn't inspire much in the way of actual fiber investment from AT&T.
The sales critters came to our neighborhood several times, but ultimately stopped. I think I may have had some influence there, because I kept asking them if they could actually deliver fiber to our house, and they kept failing to be able to answer the question. I kept showing them the AT&T website on my iPad and to show me where they could actually provide service, and they just walked away.
Still no AT&T fiber here.
But Spectrum was happy to walk around the neighborhood recently, offering their same sub-1Gbps cable modem service that they've had for years and years.
Sadly, when Time Warner Cable was here, they could do symmetric 1Gbps connections, at least if you signed up for business class service. Not so much with Spectrum. They can give you 1Gbps down, but nowhere near that for upstream -- not even with business class.
Sigh....
Re: When Google Fiber abandons your city as a failed experiment (2019)
#10Summary: Google tried to "nano"-trench Louisville, KY using 2" deep trenches (by comparison micro-trenching is typically 6" deep) then use epoxy to cover the trench. The epoxy didn't stand up to tires. Google tried to replace the epoxy with asphalt but that damaged the fiber. Google determined at that point that nano-trenching wouldn't work and didn't want to spend additional money to remedy the situation, so they ab…
I thought you must surely have meant `2'` vs `6'` (i.e. feet) and simply used the wrong symbol.
I don't really understand how a 2" deep nano trench is meant to last any serious amount of time (compared to a regular conduit fully buried under the road), given how asphalt roads (particularly in a city where there is a fixed-height curb, and resurfacing works will regularly be ripping up a layer of the asphalt to be replaced.