Always wondered why they didn't buy out Surewest or Consolidated Communications. Instant fiber subscriber base, right-of-ways, and complementary service areas. And the money found in Google's couch cushions would probably more than cover the costs. Easy way to add 100K subscribers...
The future of Fiber
221–230 of 288 posts
Re: The future of Fiber
#222Very excited to see Portland,OR on the list! I'm tired of Comcast and the other options are quite lacking in one way or another.
East Portland is wired up with Fibre backbone DSL from Century Link. Its $30 a month for a connection that's roughly 40 mbps down / 15 mbps up. I generally get 4 megabytes a sec downloads, and my friend who lives south around Holgate and 65th sees about the same. No data caps that I'm aware of either. Its faster than Comcast's two lower tier internet packages. I've heard North Portland isn't as lucky but its certainl…
I'd love to see Google buy up Frontier's FIOS lines. Their service isn't bad, but I get the feeling they don't really want to be in the fiber business and just got stuck with it in the Verizon purchase.
Re: The future of Fiber
#223Re: The future of Fiber
#224I don't understand, obviously there is a demand for this, so why aren't more companies rolling this stuff out? Give the people what they want!
"15/1 should be enough for anybody!" - something TWC would say.
Seriously though. Why are most of us still in the bandwidth dark ages?
Re: The future of Fiber
#225Earlier quoted context omitted.
no better place to wire than Philly...Start with a rollout of the Philly 'burbs As someone who lives in the Philadelphia suburbs, I'm not sure if Comcast has the stranglehold in our area that you think it does. I only know one person that has Comcast and the only reason that person has it is because they don't have access to Verizon FIOS. FIOS is faster, more stable and generally cheaper than Comcast Internet. Comcas…
I agree, especially where I live I actually have a choice between Verizon and Comcast. I have FIOS and love it. Best internet service I've ever had. So fast you can almost hear the bits as they blast out of the pipe. But my point wasn't that Philadelphia isn't a competitive market. My point was that, as a Comcast executive, seeing Google fiber trucks all over your neighborhood and coffee shops is a bit of psychologic…
I've been pretty happy with Cox Cable in Phoenix/Tempe... I generally get 105-120mbps up and 20-35mbps down in speed tests. I'm generally limited to however fast I can get something from the server at the other end.
Re: The future of Fiber
#226Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, every major ISP has bandwidth caps, some of which are prohibitively small (20GB). Even the smaller upstart ISPs, like TekSavvy are forced to have a cap (though at 300GB) due to wholesale laws. At least they offer unlimited for a reasonable amount of money. Canada is definitely behind the US for internet access, it's even behind many (if not most) third world countries.
No they don't. Only out east. I'm on Shaw. No caps.
Not sure what package you have, but Shaw has caps.
http://www.shaw.ca/internet/plans/
Re: The future of Fiber
#227There is such a high demand for this product because it fulfills a great need and requirement to be competitive, but we are being held back by our providers. Our progress, held back due to lack of innovation. Google Fiber will rule the US as soon as it can get rolled out. Cable companies better be really nice and start being competitive. Please bring it to Chandler, AZ. This article comes to mind, I recently, through…
I recently had to restore a 500GB cloud backup over Cox. I called them to ask if they could give me an exemption for one month, and not only did they refuse, but they could not honestly tell me what would happen if I went over the cap, except that I would get an email about it and my Internet "might slow down". I work from home, and can't afford any degradation of service, so I've been doing the restore piecemeal and…
Nothing, so far as I can tell.
I have a 12/2 package through Cox and routinely go over the 250GB cap. Other than an automated email saying I'm over the cap, nothing happens.
A year ago, I used 750GB in a month after setting up online backup on a computer. Nary a word.
Re: The future of Fiber
#228Why not San Francisco, Washington D.C., Boston and NYC? San Francisco, NYC and Boston because they are big tech hubs where a lot of Googlers live and Washington D.C. because it is the seat of politics in this country and the best way to show what good can happen when we have broadband connectivity. In fact, rolling out Google Fiber in the capital cities of each state makes the most sense in general. You lobby the pol…
Suburbs of DC (at least NOVA) has a decent number of places that have FiOS. Also the cable situation isn't that bad if you have Cox rather than Time Warner. But the dominating factor of what determines where people live in the suburbs seems to be schools more so than internet. Google fiber here would be more of a novelty.
Yes... there's also RCN in DC as well yet in my neighborhood I can only get Comcast.
Re: The future of Fiber
#229There is such a high demand for this product because it fulfills a great need and requirement to be competitive, but we are being held back by our providers. Our progress, held back due to lack of innovation. Google Fiber will rule the US as soon as it can get rolled out. Cable companies better be really nice and start being competitive. Please bring it to Chandler, AZ. This article comes to mind, I recently, through…
I recently had to restore a 500GB cloud backup over Cox. I called them to ask if they could give me an exemption for one month, and not only did they refuse, but they could not honestly tell me what would happen if I went over the cap, except that I would get an email about it and my Internet "might slow down". I work from home, and can't afford any degradation of service, so I've been doing the restore piecemeal and…
I seemed to notice the last couple months after I get the messages my service drops on download (but not on upload). I drop to their 5M connection instead. Strangely when I check known download speed sites they work with correct numbers, when I check other means I notice the difference there. So I hope they are not nerfing me wholly except when I try to measure it with known tools i.e. speedtest.net etc. They seem to be nice about it now but who knows, this is the first time they have been as vocal about it.
Sadly the next two tiers (yep we are there) only add 50GB (300) and 150GB (400 total), with the speeds of 25Mbps and up to 50Mbps but if you have higher speeds you will download more and be on HD more, get more files, backup more and always go over.