Google Fiber is coming to Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville and Raleigh-Durham • Hacker News Board

Re: Google Fiber is coming to Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville and Raleigh-Durham

#51

Post by rkalla » Tue, Jan 27, 2015, 7:25 PM UTC

aesthetics1 wrote: post #17

rkalla wrote: post #6

For anyone interested... the whole motivation of Google Fiber to motivate ISPs to stop gouging us does exactly what it is designed to do. Cox, in Phoenix, miraculously doubled everyone's speeds > 100mbps last year because they were concerned with our general happiness levels and wanted to show their affection. Nope... that's not it. Ran into two leads at Smash Burger in June of 2014 and asked them on the spot "When a…

Saw the same thing from Comcast in a very rural area - doubled speeds for free with higher tiers available. Went from 50 to 100. I think we are finally seeing some change.

Funny you mention 'rural area' -- my in-laws all live in the wooded section of Troy, IL... total population is like 1,000 people.

Anyway, they have Charter cable over there - and for the last decade they have been asking me about 'Getting Netflix' - but with a maximum download speed of 3mbps I kept telling them "It's just not going to work well for you..."

2 months ago Charter bumped them from 3mbps to 50mbps.

My first thought was "well, looks like another cable company is moving into the area..."

Re: Google Fiber is coming to Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville and Raleigh-Durham

#52

Post by AndyNemmity » Tue, Jan 27, 2015, 7:26 PM UTC

rkalla wrote: post #6

For anyone interested... the whole motivation of Google Fiber to motivate ISPs to stop gouging us does exactly what it is designed to do. Cox, in Phoenix, miraculously doubled everyone's speeds > 100mbps last year because they were concerned with our general happiness levels and wanted to show their affection. Nope... that's not it. Ran into two leads at Smash Burger in June of 2014 and asked them on the spot "When a…

My friend just got the gigabit service, first area to get it. So jealous. The price isn't even all that high.

Re: Google Fiber is coming to Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville and Raleigh-Durham

#53

Post by rkalla » Tue, Jan 27, 2015, 7:28 PM UTC

evo_9 wrote: post #19

rkalla wrote: post #6

For anyone interested... the whole motivation of Google Fiber to motivate ISPs to stop gouging us does exactly what it is designed to do. Cox, in Phoenix, miraculously doubled everyone's speeds > 100mbps last year because they were concerned with our general happiness levels and wanted to show their affection. Nope... that's not it. Ran into two leads at Smash Burger in June of 2014 and asked them on the spot "When a…

Given that reality one wonder why the incumbents don't raise all their speeds to dissuade google from entering there various markets. Perhaps the shear magnitude of their collective greed obscures their reasoning?

Others have stated it well - and I understand the point you are making - but they are at the mercy of the market and their stock price... if they spend $10mm upgrading city infrastructure for an area they have a total monopoly in (that no one could leave them anyway) at a high level, that wouldn't be money "well spent"

-- as opposed to winning 1,000s of subscribers in a highly competitive city through marketing and new product/speed offerings.

I'm not TOTALLY discarding the 'all cable companies are evil' element here, just that if I was sitting at the head of that table and my stock price was all that mattered to my board and the exec team, I'd probably make very similar decisions to ignore monopolized markets unless I absolutely had to (i.e. bad publicity)

Re: Google Fiber is coming to Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville and Raleigh-Durham

#54

Post by evanm » Tue, Jan 27, 2015, 7:28 PM UTC

I'm fully aware of the extreme cost of rolling out a fiber infrastructure in new locations, but I still wonder why Google isn't more aggressive with their expansion. While the upfront costs are great, they more or less have guaranteed success in most major cities. Nobody likes the incumbent telcos--they're hated all over the US. I just dream of a world in which we aren't getting raped by Comcast, TWC, and Cox. They are absolutely abysmal and have no incentive to make their customers happy given their market monopoly/oligopoly.

Re: Google Fiber is coming to Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville and Raleigh-Durham

#55

Post by AlfaWolph » Tue, Jan 27, 2015, 7:30 PM UTC

dingaling wrote: post #41

nostromo wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Friendly local government is a big factor. For example: Google looked at Seattle's NIMBY laws regarding utility boxes on sidewalks (each requiring a lengthy community approval process) and said, "Nope!" Seattle's new mayor is now looking how to streamline the process to make the city more Google friendly, should the opportunity arise again.

> Google looked at Seattle's NIMBY laws regarding utility boxes on sidewalks (each requiring a lengthy community approval process) Which is good, as sidewalks are for walking, not utility installation pads. In much of the UK outside conservation areas BT has powers to install cabinets as it sees fit. Combined with utility poles there are now some pavements on my town impassable to prams.

The area of grass past the sidewalk is often part of the easement as well. That's where all the utility poles are set as it is.

Re: Google Fiber is coming to Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville and Raleigh-Durham

#56

Post by infogulch » Tue, Jan 27, 2015, 7:30 PM UTC

cwal37 wrote: post #44

I am now surrounded by Google Fiber to the east and west, and Chattanooga's public fiber to the south, out here in Knoxville, TN. I really wish we could manage something here. This area has the biggest national lab, and a host of tech industry around it, I was kind of surprised more options didn't exist when I moved down a year ago. It makes sense to me that Google went after these southeastern markets, because we ar…

Wrong kind of trial. In Comcast's "trial", you're put on the stand and found guilty of your wallet being too full, so they relieve you of your burden.

Re: Google Fiber is coming to Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville and Raleigh-Durham

#57

Post by rkalla » Tue, Jan 27, 2015, 7:31 PM UTC

AndyNemmity wrote: post #52

rkalla wrote: post #6

For anyone interested... the whole motivation of Google Fiber to motivate ISPs to stop gouging us does exactly what it is designed to do. Cox, in Phoenix, miraculously doubled everyone's speeds > 100mbps last year because they were concerned with our general happiness levels and wanted to show their affection. Nope... that's not it. Ran into two leads at Smash Burger in June of 2014 and asked them on the spot "When a…

My friend just got the gigabit service, first area to get it. So jealous. The price isn't even all that high.

In Phoenix/Scottsdale? What are the major cross streets near him? How much?

I'm down near Tatum & Cactus.

Re: Google Fiber is coming to Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville and Raleigh-Durham

#58

Post by res0nat0r » Tue, Jan 27, 2015, 7:32 PM UTC

daigoba66 wrote: post #9

rkalla wrote: post #6

For anyone interested... the whole motivation of Google Fiber to motivate ISPs to stop gouging us does exactly what it is designed to do. Cox, in Phoenix, miraculously doubled everyone's speeds > 100mbps last year because they were concerned with our general happiness levels and wanted to show their affection. Nope... that's not it. Ran into two leads at Smash Burger in June of 2014 and asked them on the spot "When a…

In my market (Atlanta) it's not even really about the speed. Granted Comcast is far more expensive per mbps than Google Fiber. It is "fast enough" except that Comcast will cap data usage to about 300 GB per month before charging fees.

I have 105Mb Comcast internet service with no caps. I don't think the cap applies everywhere.

Re: Google Fiber is coming to Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville and Raleigh-Durham

#59

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jan 27, 2015, 7:32 PM UTC

daigoba66 wrote: post #9

rkalla wrote: post #6

For anyone interested... the whole motivation of Google Fiber to motivate ISPs to stop gouging us does exactly what it is designed to do. Cox, in Phoenix, miraculously doubled everyone's speeds > 100mbps last year because they were concerned with our general happiness levels and wanted to show their affection. Nope... that's not it. Ran into two leads at Smash Burger in June of 2014 and asked them on the spot "When a…

In my market (Atlanta) it's not even really about the speed. Granted Comcast is far more expensive per mbps than Google Fiber. It is "fast enough" except that Comcast will cap data usage to about 300 GB per month before charging fees.

[deleted]

Re: Google Fiber is coming to Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville and Raleigh-Durham

#60

Post by res0nat0r » Tue, Jan 27, 2015, 7:33 PM UTC

evanm wrote: post #54

I'm fully aware of the extreme cost of rolling out a fiber infrastructure in new locations, but I still wonder why Google isn't more aggressive with their expansion. While the upfront costs are great, they more or less have guaranteed success in most major cities. Nobody likes the incumbent telcos--they're hated all over the US. I just dream of a world in which we aren't getting raped by Comcast, TWC, and Cox. They a…

Google has only been expanding to cities that give them extensive tax breaks and other perks that haven't been afforded to most other companies. This is a good thing as it allows Google to expand, but they would never do this unless they got these incentives, plus the guaranteed number of users pre-signed up for the service so that they can guarantee some sort of ROI.