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Google Fiber Austin

fiber.google.com

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Re: Google Fiber Austin

#11

Post by NoNotTheDuo »

parktheredcar wrote: post #2

How is Google Fiber's customer service? I have heard lots of complaints about support for their free products, and most US users know the typical (Comcast, Verizon) ISP has terrible service, but I haven't heard anything about Fiber itself. Does anybody have first hand experience?

Excellent, based on my interactions with them. I've had fiber in KC for just over a year and have had to get online with them a few times for various issues. Never called in, always just done the online chat option.

And as a side note, their installers are top notch. I was scheduled to have mine installed at say 9am. They called at about 830am and tell me that the original installer may not be right on time, so they are sending over a 2nd group to start the process while we wait on the first group. Both groups show up 10 minutes early - hell, they beat me to my house. They always put on protective boot coverings when they are inside, make sure you understand what's going on, answer any questions, etc. Very professional and a lot more fun to deal with than TimeWarner.

Re: Google Fiber Austin

#12

Post by bretthoerner »

justaman wrote: post #6

I still think Google is at risk of forming a monopoly and are at risk of becoming Bell 2.0. Unfortunately due to the lack of quality ISP's, the first to offer residential fiber to the perimeter will rapidly absorb the market.

Maybe in some areas. Here in Austin AT&T, Time Warner and the local ISP Grande are all now offering cheap plans from 300Mbps to full gigabit because Google is coming to town and they need to compete. I pay something around $50 for 300Mbps (no cap) from Time Warner and it works great.

Re: Google Fiber Austin

#13

Post by reportingsjr »

justaman wrote: post #6

I still think Google is at risk of forming a monopoly and are at risk of becoming Bell 2.0. Unfortunately due to the lack of quality ISP's, the first to offer residential fiber to the perimeter will rapidly absorb the market.

If they invent and implement as many things as Bell I'm almost ok with that.

For what it is worth I have seen the effect of google fiber locally (Cincinnati) even though Google has no plans of expanding to here any time soon. Cincinnati Bell recently unveiled a 1Gbps residential plan for $70/mo. This was a response to the city council approaching Google to see what they would need to do to bring fiber here.

Re: Google Fiber Austin

#14

Post by sounds »

cmsmith wrote: post #10
oimaz wrote: post #3

It is sad that silicon valley has been so slow to adopt google fiber

It is sad that with all the would-be entrepreneurs flocking to Silicon Valley and looking for startup ideas, they all shy away from 'hard' problems like disrupting the current ISP model.

Well, I wouldn't say they _all_ shy away from it.

But I agree with your premise, that hard problems with large rewards require a different sort of VC pitch and may take longer to see a payoff. And are completely worth pursuing!

Re: Google Fiber Austin

#15

Post by lostcolony »

justaman wrote: post #6

I still think Google is at risk of forming a monopoly and are at risk of becoming Bell 2.0. Unfortunately due to the lack of quality ISP's, the first to offer residential fiber to the perimeter will rapidly absorb the market.

It really seems like Google is more breaking up the existing monopoly. By wanting more people online, viewing more ads, to fund their main revenue source, they're willing to cut connection costs down to the minimum, forcing the existing monopoly/duopoly in many places to also cut down their prices and improve service.

In short, come to Atlanta, Google; I'm sick to death of paying $75 a month for a 300 gig cap.

Re: Google Fiber Austin

#16

Post by na85 »

cmsmith wrote: post #10
oimaz wrote: post #3

It is sad that silicon valley has been so slow to adopt google fiber

It is sad that with all the would-be entrepreneurs flocking to Silicon Valley and looking for startup ideas, they all shy away from 'hard' problems like disrupting the current ISP model.

It's easier to write a javascript framework than it is to solve the hard problems.

Re: Google Fiber Austin

#17

Post by magicalist »

justaman wrote: post #6

I still think Google is at risk of forming a monopoly and are at risk of becoming Bell 2.0. Unfortunately due to the lack of quality ISP's, the first to offer residential fiber to the perimeter will rapidly absorb the market.

> Unfortunately due to the lack of quality ISP's, the first to offer residential fiber to the perimeter will rapidly absorb the market.

Is there a historical precedent that suggests that this will happen?

The major telcos continue to grow their profits year over year while decreasing their capital spending. I think the much more likely response to any success on google's part will be

- cities growing impatient for their turn and building their own networks (well underway[1])

- more and more attempts by existing ISPs at regulatory blocking of competition (well underway[2])

- finally, ISPs actually increase spending to match speeds (still in the lip service stage[3])

ISPs like their market strangleholds. They aren't going to just roll over. Meanwhile building infrastructure is fundamentally a lot of work, so no "Bell 2.0" is going to be born overnight if they're trying to actually build out a physical network (major ISPs merging[4] as a road to Ma Bell is a different story, though).

[1] http://arstechnica.com/business/2013/11/fed-up-with-slow-and...

[2] http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/08/how-big-telecom-s...

[3] http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/04/att-copies-google-na...

[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comcast-Time_Warner_Cable_merge...

Re: Google Fiber Austin

#18

Post by chimeracoder »

reportingsjr wrote: post #13
justaman wrote: post #6

I still think Google is at risk of forming a monopoly and are at risk of becoming Bell 2.0. Unfortunately due to the lack of quality ISP's, the first to offer residential fiber to the perimeter will rapidly absorb the market.

If they invent and implement as many things as Bell I'm almost ok with that. For what it is worth I have seen the effect of google fiber locally (Cincinnati) even though Google has no plans of expanding to here any time soon. Cincinnati Bell recently unveiled a 1Gbps residential plan for $70/mo. This was a response to the city council approaching Google to see what they would need to do to bring fiber here.

> If they invent and implement as many things as Bell I'm almost ok with that.

Maybe, but I wouldn't compare Google with Bell Labs directly.

Remember that the only reason we had access to so much of what Bell Labs invented (e.g. Unix) is due to a 1958 antitrust lawsuit which resulted in AT&T being prohibited from profiting off of the computer business entirely[0]. As a result, Bell Labs had to license all technologies (except for telephone-related services) freely.

It wasn't until 1984 when AT&T sold off Bell Labs - almost three decades later. If AT&T had been allowed to profit off of Bell Labs, we might remember Bell Labs's legacy very differently.

If Google were subject to an analogous requirement that would be one thing, but absent that legal restriction, the two situations are very different.

[0] http://www.faqs.org/docs/artu/ch02s01.html

Re: Google Fiber Austin

#19

Post by discardorama »

oimaz wrote: post #3

It is sad that silicon valley has been so slow to adopt google fiber

Agreed. Whenever there's a comparison of our pathetic speeds with those in Korea/Japan, people claim "the US is a huge country", etc. However, San Francisco's density (6600/km^2) is higher than that of Tokyo (6000/km^2); why doesn't SF have FTTH?

Re: Google Fiber Austin

#20

Post by psychometry »

cmsmith wrote: post #10
oimaz wrote: post #3

It is sad that silicon valley has been so slow to adopt google fiber

It is sad that with all the would-be entrepreneurs flocking to Silicon Valley and looking for startup ideas, they all shy away from 'hard' problems like disrupting the current ISP model.

I think that smart people in both business and technology are attracted to hard problems that are intellectually challenging. Dealing with the corruption and the entrenched bureaucracy of local, state, and federal governments doesn't qualify as an "interesting" problem for these types of people. It's why you don't see many scientists in elected office.
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