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Visible signs left after Google Fiber abandons Louisville

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Re: Visible signs left after Google Fiber abandons Louisville

#131

Post by colechristensen »

ilovecaching wrote: post #98

Let’s not forget that the real issue here is that American ISPs are a complete monopoly by Comcast and AT&T, companies made of pure greed. Small end sub ISPs have to claw for every strand of dark fiber. Google really shouldn’t be the answer though. We need to demand that politicians address the issue in the upcoming election before they start looking at the Silicon Valley giants.

The best ISP in the country is in Minneapolis. $70/mo for symmetric 1 Gbps

https://fiber.usinternet.com/

They lay their own fiber terminating at your home and have been steadily covering the metro area.

Re: Visible signs left after Google Fiber abandons Louisville

#132

Post by kasey_junk »

OldHand2018 wrote: post #128
kasey_junk wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s rare in Chicago to have multiple fiber options and lots of the city has none. I don’t necessarily disagree with your point but your experience may be on the rare side.

You may not have multiple fiber options all over the city, but its really common to have at least 2 high speed options. Chicago doesn't have a cable or telephone monopoly, so you've always had the option of Comcast or RCN and AT&T or Verizon. They all offer internet these days. All the railroad right of ways are loaded with fiber, the freight tunnels are loaded with fiber, etc. If you are downtown, you can add the ha…

I can get gig speed from xfinity. That’s it. When I lived 10 blocks south I had zero options. At that location 16mb dsl was the best choice.

Railroad right of ways are largely immaterial to last mile home seevice.

Re: Visible signs left after Google Fiber abandons Louisville

#133

Post by scruple »

colechristensen wrote: post #131
ilovecaching wrote: post #98

Let’s not forget that the real issue here is that American ISPs are a complete monopoly by Comcast and AT&T, companies made of pure greed. Small end sub ISPs have to claw for every strand of dark fiber. Google really shouldn’t be the answer though. We need to demand that politicians address the issue in the upcoming election before they start looking at the Silicon Valley giants.

The best ISP in the country is in Minneapolis. $70/mo for symmetric 1 Gbps https://fiber.usinternet.com/ They lay their own fiber terminating at your home and have been steadily covering the metro area.

Does this scale to other metro areas, if other initiatives could be funded and started? If so, why isn't it happening in those other metros? If not, what makes the Twin Cities special?

Re: Visible signs left after Google Fiber abandons Louisville

#134

Post by bobwaycott »

colechristensen wrote: post #131
ilovecaching wrote: post #98

Let’s not forget that the real issue here is that American ISPs are a complete monopoly by Comcast and AT&T, companies made of pure greed. Small end sub ISPs have to claw for every strand of dark fiber. Google really shouldn’t be the answer though. We need to demand that politicians address the issue in the upcoming election before they start looking at the Silicon Valley giants.

The best ISP in the country is in Minneapolis. $70/mo for symmetric 1 Gbps https://fiber.usinternet.com/ They lay their own fiber terminating at your home and have been steadily covering the metro area.

Heh. We were the first US city to do it (Chattanooga), and are the best. ;)

I led the team that worked on a bunch of software that supported the effort (behind the scenes and consumer-facing), and am glad to see other cities following—hopefully others will also copy EPB’s commitment to net neutrality and no caps. We’ve long had the same price (a couple bucks under $70) for the gig. Lowest offering here is symmetric 300meg currently. We even do 10gig to the home now.

Re: Visible signs left after Google Fiber abandons Louisville

#135

Post by colechristensen »

scruple wrote: post #133
colechristensen wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best ISP in the country is in Minneapolis. $70/mo for symmetric 1 Gbps https://fiber.usinternet.com/ They lay their own fiber terminating at your home and have been steadily covering the metro area.

Does this scale to other metro areas, if other initiatives could be funded and started? If so, why isn't it happening in those other metros? If not, what makes the Twin Cities special?

It went relatively slowly and started in sections of the city with the right customer demographics. The local government which is a big part of the equation seems to be generally a little more reasonable and less corrupt than is average.

I am speculating it is capital intensive and not enormously profitable, and it is slow.

Re: Visible signs left after Google Fiber abandons Louisville

#136

Post by rayiner »

yingw787 wrote: post #25

When I interned at AT&T a few years ago, I asked a manager I respected whether they were worried about Google Fiber coming in and eating their lunch. "No", he said. "We'll sue them for every mile of fiber they lay down". I can understand why they would make that play. It's kind of the only play they have. AT&T and Verizon innovate enough to remain...okay...but they're not exactly Google. The only way they would win i…

People focus on Louisville because Google created a legal issue there by asking the city to pass a “one touch make ready” law that would allow Google’s contractors to move AT&T’s lines and equipment. I’m sure AT&T didn’t file that law suit out of principle, but it’s hard to blame AT&T for not going along with that plan.

But what about all the other cities where there was no such law suits? What about cities like Baltimore, that offered to roll out the red carpet for Google, but which Google turned down? Did law suits in two cities actually halt Fiber expansion, or is that just a fig leaf for Google abandoning a business line that will never make the kind of money it demands of its business units?

Re: Visible signs left after Google Fiber abandons Louisville

#137

Post by rayiner »

colechristensen wrote: post #135
scruple wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does this scale to other metro areas, if other initiatives could be funded and started? If so, why isn't it happening in those other metros? If not, what makes the Twin Cities special?

It went relatively slowly and started in sections of the city with the right customer demographics. The local government which is a big part of the equation seems to be generally a little more reasonable and less corrupt than is average. I am speculating it is capital intensive and not enormously profitable, and it is slow.

> It went relatively slowly and started in sections of the city with the right customer demographics. The local government which is a big part of the equation seems to be generally a little more reasonable and less corrupt than is average.

That is also how Stockholm built out its fiber network. And, by the way, it is illegal in almost every city, because it would result in wealthier neighborhoods getting fiber first. That is the reason, for example, why Baltimore doesn’t have FiOS whole almost the whole rest of Maryland does.

Re: Visible signs left after Google Fiber abandons Louisville

#138

Post by [deleted] »

anonymous5133 wrote: post #31
yingw787 wrote: post #25

When I interned at AT&T a few years ago, I asked a manager I respected whether they were worried about Google Fiber coming in and eating their lunch. "No", he said. "We'll sue them for every mile of fiber they lay down". I can understand why they would make that play. It's kind of the only play they have. AT&T and Verizon innovate enough to remain...okay...but they're not exactly Google. The only way they would win i…

It did have a positive impact though because AT&T and Verizon started actually building out their fiber networks more aggressively when they saw google entering the space. I live in Orange County, CA and AT&T out here started building out fiber when they saw Google building in Irvine, CA. AT&T knows that if they could just "rope off" google to a small area then their initial investment wouldn't really be worth it.

[deleted]

Re: Visible signs left after Google Fiber abandons Louisville

#139

Post by kortilla »

yingw787 wrote: post #37
yingw787 wrote: post #25

When I interned at AT&T a few years ago, I asked a manager I respected whether they were worried about Google Fiber coming in and eating their lunch. "No", he said. "We'll sue them for every mile of fiber they lay down". I can understand why they would make that play. It's kind of the only play they have. AT&T and Verizon innovate enough to remain...okay...but they're not exactly Google. The only way they would win i…

I do think the significance of this is cities realizing there is no Disney prince riding in on a white horse to save them, and taking their own futures into their own hands. I'm hoping there's enough "anchor cities/regions", like Nashville/RTP/Kansas City, that have contingency plans and referendums ready for an infrastructure push at the local level if Fiber pulls out there, to prevent all white-collar talent from d…

White collar talent doesn’t follow fiber installs. You can’t even get fiber in many places in Mountain View of all places.
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