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Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

fiber.google.com

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Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#231

Post by Goronmon »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #191
mahyarm wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, it's not the airlines themselves most of the time, but the airports & governments and the requirements they force on airlines. The airports & government bureaucracy take something that should just be a catching a greyhound within 10 minutes of boarding into a 2-4 hour stressful nightmare.

Which requirements are you talking about, specifically?

Probably mostly around security. For instance, when I take the train to get to work and back, I can hop on the second before it leaves. And they don't check anything except for tickets, which doesn't start until after the train is already on the way. It's a bit different than taking a flight, even though there is often more people on the train I take than most flights I've been on.

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#232

Post by magicalist »

maratd wrote: post #102
api wrote: post #29

Thank GOD they're disrupting this industry. All the telcos are worthless "Soviet bureaus" that deserve death. It's really sort of amazing to think about. In all my years on this planet I have never been pleased with a telecom company. Never. I have always felt like I was paying far too much for inferior service, contemptible customer support, and endless efforts to further "monetize" me through harassing phone calls…

> contemptible customer support Because Google will be so much better? Look, I hate telcos just like the next guy, but the suckage is mostly due to the nature of the business. They form natural monopolies and that sort of thing doesn't lead to customer satisfaction. The only way that sector is going to get truly disrupted is through gigabit wireless internet. You can have multiple competitors in one space with compar…

It's kind of ridiculous to talk about "natural monopolies" when often it is a government-mandated monopoly via cable franchise agreements.

It's also ridiculous to talk about predatory pricing when historically all major telecom infrastructure has been government subsidized.

The major ISPs are all capable of competing in this market (Comcast and Time Warner Cable both have had profits growing at rates many times higher than that of revenues this year. AT&T has as well, but I couldn't find a split for just their ISP numbers), and disruption is exactly what will help them start doing so.

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#233

Post by rplnt »

Avenger42 wrote: post #165
randall wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumping_(pricing_policy)#Action... Maybe?

That only seems to apply to dumping as an action by international firms, intended to damage domestic companies, and the rights domestic companies have to address it. It's not strictly applicable between two local firms competing for customers.

I see, I don't think there's a difference between domestic/foreign firm when it comes to dumping in EU. I think that you can't operate with loss in order to crush competition. But Google might have it covered with other sources of revenue coming from "free" users.

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#234

Post by betterth »

tnorthcutt wrote: post #152
betterth wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh yeah! Think: a harddrive writes at what an average of 75MB/s [1], and 1Gbit internet is 125MB/s [2]. (Note, Google currently advertises 'up to 1Gbit up and down'). This means that dropbox no longer "syncs". It's just another harddrive in terms of how it works. Copies to and from just as quickly as your harddrive. Heck, it seems like if you installed an application to your dropbox, and ran your computer off of an S…

First, even if you "installed an application to your dropbox", it would still be running from your local machine - that's just how Dropbox works. Second, even if it were running the application from Dropbox's server(s) (it seems like that's what you mean?), it would still have to read from their servers - you can't magically eliminate a bottleneck just by moving it to a different physical computer; data still has to…

Yes, I messed that up, sorry. But it's still an impressive feat and I'm still very excited about getting 1Gbit internet!

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#235

Post by swalsh »

sp332 wrote: post #196
towelrod wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What $1,000 worth of equipment? The "free" tier only comes with a network box, and it has a $300 "construction fee". $300 should pretty easily pay for what looks like a wireless router.

That doesn't include (at least transparently): actually running the fiber to your house, getting permits to run the fiber through various properties along the way, installing and maintaining switches routers amplifiers etc to give you the service, etc.

It would seem like that is subsidized by the paying users.

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#236

Post by andyfleming »

angryasian wrote: post #139
mehulkar wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's different because Comcast/Verizon don't have your email and your calendar and your web surfing habits and your voicemail and your text messages and your contacts and did I mention your email?

people have been using this argument for years, just wondering has there ever been any example(citation) where this has been an issue yet ?

It's a great point. I've always shared the same suspicion, but there hasn't been any instance yet, at least in the public eye, where google has abused my personal data.

I think they've just realized for everyone to "move to the cloud", we need internet that makes it possible.

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#237

Post by 27182818284 »

untog wrote: post #206
jevinskie wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is $70 w/o TV and $120 w/ TV not a slap in the face to other ISPs when it gives you gigabit without data caps?!

Because most customers don't care about gigabit. I'm a tech geek and I don't care about it- my existing speed (around 10mpbs, I think) has rarely posed problems for me. In any case, $120 in Kansas City is not ever going to translate to $120 in New York City.

This is incorrect. It is why places like T-Mobile run commercials about caps and why there are tons of articles and blogs and Twitter comments about data caps. A lot of people care.

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#238

Post by wlesieutre »

notatoad wrote: post #178
recoiledsnake wrote: post #84

While I am super happy that the cable industry is getting disrupted as it deserves to be(the wireless industry sucks too, maybe a tech company can buy TMobile or Sprint), I feel uneasy about the following two points: 1) Profitability: I wonder how profitable and sustainable this is for Google? They can subsidize it for only so long before deciding to discontinue it as has been happening to many of their services rece…

>They can subsidize it for only so long before deciding to discontinue it... on the pricing page, they commit to providing free service for at least 7 years. So unless google goes belly-up, it won't be discontinued for a while.

IMO, the free plan is brilliant. They get people to front the money for putting in infrastructure, and as digital distribution of everything continues to grow, they'll probably start to see people transitioning over to the faster connections. $300 + $70/month is a hard sell for a lot of people, but if my parents could ditch Comcast for a one time fee I'm pretty sure they'd do it.

Re: Google Fiber Plans & Pricing

#240

Post by tokenadult »

I browsed around the site,

http://fiber.google.com/how/

and although I have friends and relatives who live in the Kansas City metropolitan area, I don't live there myself. So as rollout happens there, I'll be glad to hear from HN participants who live there what's happening in the local Internet access market. Meanwhile, I'll still be dealing with the same SMALL subset of providers who reach my neighborhood as I have for years. Please let us know what you think of Google Fiber when it arrives in your neighborhood, okay?

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