Whatever happened to Google Fiber for Communities? • Hacker News Board

Re: Whatever happened to Google Fiber for Communities?

#21

Post by shotgun » Thu, Dec 09, 2010, 8:27 PM UTC

phlux wrote: post #17

synnik wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm confused - what does a PDF showing their sales pitch have to do with the Google project?

It shows they do a very substantial amount of cable and fiber installations. That packet, being confidential, is submitted when they bid on work and attempt to get large projects. The words of the installer were "Yeah" to my question about the install being for Google. If this were some po-dunk little company, and they did not have such a strong sales sheet - I would be less-inclined to think that installer was telli…

Yes, but all it means is part of SF is getting fiber. Could this just be a new line for added redundancy for their Stanford "beta" project?

I'm not sure what list of cities other people are referring to...in the PDFs? Or the fiberforcommunities.com list of cities that responded to the RFI?

Re: Whatever happened to Google Fiber for Communities?

#22

Post by phlux » Thu, Dec 09, 2010, 9:04 PM UTC

shotgun wrote: post #21

phlux wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It shows they do a very substantial amount of cable and fiber installations. That packet, being confidential, is submitted when they bid on work and attempt to get large projects. The words of the installer were "Yeah" to my question about the install being for Google. If this were some po-dunk little company, and they did not have such a strong sales sheet - I would be less-inclined to think that installer was telli…

Yes, but all it means is part of SF is getting fiber. Could this just be a new line for added redundancy for their Stanford "beta" project? I'm not sure what list of cities other people are referring to...in the PDFs? Or the fiberforcommunities.com list of cities that responded to the RFI?

Google has a list of the cities that appied for and (may?) receive the FIOS offering. Its in the original story link.

Re: Whatever happened to Google Fiber for Communities?

#23

Post by shotgun » Thu, Dec 09, 2010, 9:05 PM UTC

phlux wrote: post #22

shotgun wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but all it means is part of SF is getting fiber. Could this just be a new line for added redundancy for their Stanford "beta" project? I'm not sure what list of cities other people are referring to...in the PDFs? Or the fiberforcommunities.com list of cities that responded to the RFI?

Google has a list of the cities that appied for and (may?) receive the FIOS offering. Its in the original story link.

Reassuring to know a list of chosen cities hasn't been leaked.

Re: Whatever happened to Google Fiber for Communities?

#24

Post by oogali » Thu, Dec 09, 2010, 10:54 PM UTC

I'm curious what name Google is operating under the California PUC (and San Francisco PUC) with.

You can't just show up with large bundles of fiber and hang 'em from the utility poles in jurisdictions that regulate pole attachments.

Re: Whatever happened to Google Fiber for Communities?

#25

Post by jedc » Fri, Dec 10, 2010, 12:08 AM UTC

juiceandjuice wrote: post #6

http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/show_story.php?id=19013 Stanford faculty is getting it

That's separate from the Google Fiber for Communities project. I haven't seen any news on that since all the applications were submitted.

I'm sure the selection / due diligence / contracting process is ridiculously complex, though! I would assume it would be a while before anything was announced.

Re: Whatever happened to Google Fiber for Communities?

#26

Post by tibbon » Fri, Dec 10, 2010, 1:31 AM UTC

metageek wrote: post #13

paul9290 wrote: post #12

Is verizon fios not fiber to the home?

Yeah, and it's been so unprofitable they've stopped installing it in new towns.

Any idea of which part is unprofitable? Too much bandwidth used, or is it that they aren't getting enough people in each area onboard?

Re: Whatever happened to Google Fiber for Communities?

#27

Post by jsz0 » Fri, Dec 10, 2010, 1:48 AM UTC

Google presently has some job postings for FTTH engineering and field operations positions. Looks to me like they're still in the early stages of putting this project together. I put my resume in just for the hell of it though I haven't worked with FTTH G-PON much only cable HFC & some FTTH RFoG. Worth a shot eh?

Re: Whatever happened to Google Fiber for Communities?

#28

Post by wmf » Fri, Dec 10, 2010, 2:51 AM UTC

jedc wrote: post #25

juiceandjuice wrote: post #6

http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/show_story.php?id=19013 Stanford faculty is getting it

That's separate from the Google Fiber for Communities project. I haven't seen any news on that since all the applications were submitted. I'm sure the selection / due diligence / contracting process is ridiculously complex, though! I would assume it would be a while before anything was announced.

My impression is that the Stanford project is the first (or perhaps zeroth) phase of the Google Fiber for Communities project. They can probably learn a lot rolling out "minimum viable fiber" to ~100 homes before they try to do thousands. It wouldn't seem to make sense for Google to have multiple competing fiber projects.

Re: Whatever happened to Google Fiber for Communities?

#29

Post by Nrsolis » Fri, Dec 10, 2010, 4:01 AM UTC

wmf wrote: post #19

Nrsolis wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not so sure how I feel about this. On one hand, this is a direct shot across the bow of the cablecos/telcos. By essentially taking the roadmap of bandwidth expansion via slow, rolling upgrades over a long long period of time and going straight to the ultimate destination, GOOG is sucking a whole lot of "value" out of the existing infrastructure. On the other hand, this will place enormous stress on the regional/l…

I think Google fiber can answer the question of how elastic bandwidth demand is. If you give someone effectively unlimited bandwidth, how much will they actually use?

They? I think the better question is what kind of applications are enabled and what that revenue model looks like. How does that revenue stream get allocated between network and app provider?

Re: Whatever happened to Google Fiber for Communities?

#30

Post by Nrsolis » Fri, Dec 10, 2010, 4:04 AM UTC

phlux wrote: post #22

shotgun wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but all it means is part of SF is getting fiber. Could this just be a new line for added redundancy for their Stanford "beta" project? I'm not sure what list of cities other people are referring to...in the PDFs? Or the fiberforcommunities.com list of cities that responded to the RFI?

Google has a list of the cities that appied for and (may?) receive the FIOS offering. Its in the original story link.

GOOG isn't offering FiOS. That's a Verizon thing. A passive optical network with asymmetric bandwidth thing.

What GOOG is doing is a single fiber per house going all the way back to a CO.