Think big with a gig: Our experimental fiber network • Hacker News Board

Re: Think big with a gig: Our experimental fiber network

#11

Post by theblackbox » Wed, Feb 10, 2010, 4:46 PM UTC

Worth noting: We had something quite inspirational up in the Lakeland fells recently. One villiage (Alston Moor[1]) was so sick of constantly being set back by ISPs, that they organised a community action group to lay their own fibre optic cable during some planned roadworks. Everyone pitched in, cloudsourced infrastructure if you will, and with just enough people they look set to have 100Mb broadband before a lot of places.

The guys who got it off the ground set up www.cybermoor.org and are encouraging similar grass roots development for other remote areas. I like that.

[1:http://www.cybermoor.org/index.php?option=com_mtree&task...]

Re: Think big with a gig: Our experimental fiber network

#12

Post by pavs » Wed, Feb 10, 2010, 4:47 PM UTC

tjic wrote: post #10

pavs wrote: post #6

This will shake up the broadband industry the same way ebook readers are transforming the publishing industry. This is HUGE. I am in NY and I am waiting for years for fios in my area. Hopefully this adoption will move faster than FIOS.

You may have a problem in NY. In general, the more built up a place is, the more vested interests there are, and the more they are able to manipulate the legislative process. Google moves at Internet speed. Out in the "real world", it's still illegal to sell cars and wine over the Internet, because the local car and liquor distributors have gotten their preferences written into the law. You may find that Google can't…

Thanks man. I feel much better now.

Re: Think big with a gig: Our experimental fiber network

#13

Post by jonknee » Wed, Feb 10, 2010, 4:51 PM UTC

tjic wrote: post #10

pavs wrote: post #6

This will shake up the broadband industry the same way ebook readers are transforming the publishing industry. This is HUGE. I am in NY and I am waiting for years for fios in my area. Hopefully this adoption will move faster than FIOS.

You may have a problem in NY. In general, the more built up a place is, the more vested interests there are, and the more they are able to manipulate the legislative process. Google moves at Internet speed. Out in the "real world", it's still illegal to sell cars and wine over the Internet, because the local car and liquor distributors have gotten their preferences written into the law. You may find that Google can't…

Not to mention it's harder to build a network where everything is paved over and digging requires navigating through a couple hundred years of previous projects (and having to use union labor for it). I don't envy anyone having to plan a network buildout in NYC.

In many other parts of the country it's mostly digging through dirt and in when you're in a neighborhood using a water jet to tunnel under driveways. Piece of cake.

Re: Think big with a gig: Our experimental fiber network

#14

Post by dpcan » Wed, Feb 10, 2010, 4:52 PM UTC

khelloworld wrote: post #2

Yay!!.....hmm..wait a second.. (addendum: whoa, my tail's on fire!!)

I don't understand the down-votes here. This is exactly what I was thinking.

Google Phone, Email, ISP, Website, Checkout, Calendar, Docs, Search, Stats, your DNA .....

People are making a stink about Comcast buying NBC, but Google seems to get away with much more and people cheer. If the argument is "sure, but they make great products", that doesn't cut it for me.

Re: Think big with a gig: Our experimental fiber network

#15

Post by wmf » Wed, Feb 10, 2010, 4:52 PM UTC

pavs wrote: post #6

This will shake up the broadband industry the same way ebook readers are transforming the publishing industry. This is HUGE. I am in NY and I am waiting for years for fios in my area. Hopefully this adoption will move faster than FIOS.

I suspect it will encourage incumbents to roll out FTTH only in neighborhoods where GoogleNet is available. For the other 99.9% of the US, nothing will change.

Re: Think big with a gig: Our experimental fiber network

#16

Post by mseebach » Wed, Feb 10, 2010, 4:53 PM UTC

Shamiq wrote: post #5

Owning your net access, owning the DNS, routing through their backbone. These guys have all your bases covered. How do you form an underground internet that bypasses the big players?

http://store.cablesplususa.com/riinar.html

http://www.gardeners-world.net/prod_show.asp?id=853

Alternatively, look into http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMPRNet

Re: Think big with a gig: Our experimental fiber network

#17

Post by Groxx » Wed, Feb 10, 2010, 4:56 PM UTC

dpcan wrote: post #14

khelloworld wrote: post #2

Yay!!.....hmm..wait a second.. (addendum: whoa, my tail's on fire!!)

I don't understand the down-votes here. This is exactly what I was thinking. Google Phone, Email, ISP, Website, Checkout, Calendar, Docs, Search, Stats, your DNA ..... People are making a stink about Comcast buying NBC, but Google seems to get away with much more and people cheer. If the argument is "sure, but they make great products", that doesn't cut it for me.

Probably because there's no content to the comment? It doesn't even explain which "hmm" is being hmm'd.

Re: Think big with a gig: Our experimental fiber network

#18

Post by patrickgzill » Wed, Feb 10, 2010, 4:57 PM UTC

Comcast is slowly getting into enterprise fiber-based bandwidth for business; my guess is that they will use the enterprise to grow their installed base, then eventually go wholly into fiber based delivery. Of course, at a price... whether this will spur Comcast into a faster rollout is the question.

Re: Think big with a gig: Our experimental fiber network

#19

Post by Groxx » Wed, Feb 10, 2010, 5:00 PM UTC

swombat wrote: post #3

Time for the other so-called broadband providers to shake in their boots. I like companies that have no respect for established business models. In this perspective, despite its size, I think it's fair to call Google a start-up.

I forget where the link was (I think somewhere on yc), but it showed a chart of internet access speed through a few years, rated by countries. Most of the large-nation world had grown by 10%+, many over 50%, in a few years, while the US had dropped by a couple percent. This is in addition to most of those countries being higher already, so it's not merely a 5kbps -> 8kbps jump. My price for internet access not going down, and speed not going up (personal experience) in several years implies the ISPs are gouging because they can.

Proper competition is essential in every industry. If Google can provide it, good for them. This is an area where only the big players can compete, but nobody's stepped forward to fix things. Maybe this will be it.

Re: Think big with a gig: Our experimental fiber network

#20

Post by joezydeco » Wed, Feb 10, 2010, 5:01 PM UTC

tjic wrote: post #10

pavs wrote: post #6

This will shake up the broadband industry the same way ebook readers are transforming the publishing industry. This is HUGE. I am in NY and I am waiting for years for fios in my area. Hopefully this adoption will move faster than FIOS.

You may have a problem in NY. In general, the more built up a place is, the more vested interests there are, and the more they are able to manipulate the legislative process. Google moves at Internet speed. Out in the "real world", it's still illegal to sell cars and wine over the Internet, because the local car and liquor distributors have gotten their preferences written into the law. You may find that Google can't…

It's not just NY. It's a lot of places. Many towns have locked down franchise agreements for telephone and cable tv "utilities" just like they do for water or power.

If Google admits they're going to deliver advanced Google Voice or YouTube services over these lines, that's infringing on these agreements and the towns face lawsuits from the legacy carriers.

You can't just hop on poles and start stringing wires all over the place.