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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

#151

Post by spullara »

tibu wrote: post #149
spullara wrote: post #14

Fiber is probably a dead end and will ultimately be replaced by 5G point-to-point transmission for the last mile.

I live in a small village in Hungary. I have fiber because of a Eastern-European provider called Digi. They are cheap and reliable. But I don't really thing well have 5G here in short time. I suppose huge cities will be covered first and based on the tech requirements and number of base stations it will take years. In the meantime I can have 1Gb speed which is more than enough for me for everything.

Fiber is easy in big cities. The point-to-point 5G stuff will be to get high-bandwidth to harder to reach places. You're lucky that you can get that, no "small village" in the US will get fiber.

Re: Visible signs left after Google Fiber abandons Louisville

#152

Post by StudentStuff »

reaperducer wrote: post #121
anonymous5133 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

AT&T and Verizon started actually building out their fiber networks more aggressively when they saw google entering the space That doesn't seem to mean anything when all the company cares about is next quarter's stock performance. When I moved to Seattle, Verizon had recently abandoned its fiber network there, and my neighbors were so mad about it that they didn't trust any ISP. I tried to Google it, but Big G disapp…

Frontier bought said fiber network, I'd hardly call it abandoned. Additionally, none of that fiber was ran in Seattle proper, but rather in the far suburbs and ex-urbs of the north & eastside, starting at Lynnwood on the north end and staying north of Bellevue on the eastside.

If anything, Verzion plowed a ton of money to run fiber to most homes, then saw poor uptake and a small telco they could dupe into taking on massive debt (Frontier). This has forced Frontier to offer good deals like 200Mbps/200Mbps for $40 a month. Centurylink in the city proper starts at $45 for 40Mbps/5Mbps via fiber, and Comcast is $30 plus fees for 60Mbps with a 1TB cap.

Re: Visible signs left after Google Fiber abandons Louisville

#153

Post by josteink »

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…

> No", he said. "We'll sue them for every mile of fiber they lay down".

When companies can sue other companies for providing them with actual competition, you know customers are getting so utterly screwed. I don’t even understand how this can be legal.

So glad I don’t live in the US.

Re: Visible signs left after Google Fiber abandons Louisville

#154

Post by WhuzzupDomal »

“The company also wanted to cover the trenches with epoxy, rather than the typical asphalt mix.”

Along with the rest, this outlines a basic problem that modern Google and other Silicon Valley companies have with technologies. The Google people have massive talent, capabilities, and funding. Yet the use this almost as a handicap nowadays. Because they have talent doesn’t mean they have a monopoly of it.

We have extensive testing of every conceivable paving and repair mathod done over 100+ years. Engineering colleges around the U.S. (and the world of course) have a massive legacy of tests. To go in and just guess your new idea is going to work for a new project just isn’t necessary in such basic technologies.

Re: Visible signs left after Google Fiber abandons Louisville

#155

Post by dodobirdlord »

linuxftw wrote: post #72
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't likely to span the divide, when you consider that urban folks probably won't like having to pay drastically higher taxes to cover not their cheap connection, but to cover the hundred thousand dollar project to trench fiber out to one dude's cabin fifty miles from civilization. And then to do that over and over for every isolated place in the country. There's a reason rural Internet sucks: It's expensive to…

What about roads? What about electricity? Why should rural people have those when it adds extra tax burden to those in the city? What about the postal service?

In all seriousness, why should they? There are obvious diminishing returns and there's a point where the distances get large enough and the number of people gets small enough that it's unjustifiable. Opportunity costs exist, and it follows that advocating for money to be spent inefficiently is bad.

Re: Visible signs left after Google Fiber abandons Louisville

#156

Post by setquk »

WhuzzupDomal wrote: post #154

“The company also wanted to cover the trenches with epoxy, rather than the typical asphalt mix.” Along with the rest, this outlines a basic problem that modern Google and other Silicon Valley companies have with technologies. The Google people have massive talent, capabilities, and funding. Yet the use this almost as a handicap nowadays. Because they have talent doesn’t mean they have a monopoly of it. We have extens…

Indeed.

Epoxy even sounds like a stupid idea. I mean how are you going to repair that next time. It’s impossible to dig that stuff up.

Re: Visible signs left after Google Fiber abandons Louisville

#157

Post by itronitron »

debatem1 wrote: post #148
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 worked with the fiber team and I have to say this assessment is super accurate. We fought for every fucking mile, but Google is soft. It just doesn't have the pain tolerance for this fight.

Do you know why they didn't run fiber on the poles? Since they got special accommodations to do that it is unclear to me why they didn't use that route.

Re: Visible signs left after Google Fiber abandons Louisville

#158

Post by debatem1 »

itronitron wrote: post #157
debatem1 wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked with the fiber team and I have to say this assessment is super accurate. We fought for every fucking mile, but Google is soft. It just doesn't have the pain tolerance for this fight.

Do you know why they didn't run fiber on the poles? Since they got special accommodations to do that it is unclear to me why they didn't use that route.

Fiber had all kinds of institutional beliefs that were never revisited, and this one was acquired before my time. I have no idea why that decision was made, and honestly I can't say whether it was a good one or a bad one.

Re: Visible signs left after Google Fiber abandons Louisville

#159

Post by kkarakk »

setquk wrote: post #156
WhuzzupDomal wrote: post #154

“The company also wanted to cover the trenches with epoxy, rather than the typical asphalt mix.” Along with the rest, this outlines a basic problem that modern Google and other Silicon Valley companies have with technologies. The Google people have massive talent, capabilities, and funding. Yet the use this almost as a handicap nowadays. Because they have talent doesn’t mean they have a monopoly of it. We have extens…

Indeed. Epoxy even sounds like a stupid idea. I mean how are you going to repair that next time. It’s impossible to dig that stuff up.

it's only a couple of inches deep, it sounds like "if there's a problem we'll tear it out and replace it" kinda deal

Re: Visible signs left after Google Fiber abandons Louisville

#160

Post by scarface74 »

rayiner wrote: post #136
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 Balt…

Why rollout the red carpet for Google? AT&T is more than willing and able to expand its fiber gigabit internet.

I hate to admit it, but we haven’t had any issues with AT&T gigabit ethernet service. It’s $70 a month with no additional fees, rock solid and unlike Comcast, we actually get great (900Mbps) upload speeds.

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