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Google Fiber Austin

fiber.google.com

61–70 of 157 posts

Re: Google Fiber Austin

#61
post #3

It is sad that silicon valley has been so slow to adopt google fiber

AT&T couldn't even roll out U-Verse in San Francisco: http://www.fiercetelecom.com/story/att-ordered-stop-u-verse-... , and it's among the hardest cities in the U.S. to build any physical infracture: http://www.citylab.com/housing/2013/10/san-francisco-exodus/... . As demand for housing the bay area rises supply remains constant, leading to dramatic price increases. These are political problems and they have politica…

Sonic is starting to roll out their gigabit fiber system in the Sunset area of San Francisco. (https://forums.sonic.net/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1085&start=170) SF has a new law restricting the placement of equipment cabinets at ground level. (http://sfdpw.org/index.aspx?page=1692) Here's the site for protesting against equipment cabinets in SF. (http://sfbeautiful.org/portfolio/protest-boxes/) Sonic has to work with that.

This is more of a problem in medium density residential areas. In high density areas, big buildings often lease basement space to utilities. In low density areas, there's lots of room for infrastructure. It's the suburban areas where people obsess on lawn care where this is a problem.

Re: Google Fiber Austin

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe in some areas. Here in Austin AT&T, Time Warner and the local ISP Grande are all now offering cheap plans from 300Mbps to full gigabit because Google is coming to town and they need to compete. I pay something around $50 for 300Mbps (no cap) from Time Warner and it works great.

yep, that's been my experience too. google fiber forced the entrenched providers to become competitive. now, they have become competitive, and I have no clear motivation to switch to google fiber. I may still switch, but I'm about a half mile away from the "sign up now" zones.

This is exactly what Google needs - in order for their vision of the future to happen people need to have far better connections on average than they do now. When Google Fiber enters a market, everyone wins - even if you don't switch to Google as your ISP.

Re: Google Fiber Austin

#63
post #58

Damn, one time $300 fee for "Up to" 5 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload. That's like getting free internet for 6 and a half years[1] from current providers after 6 months. And if you want to upgrade you've already got the hardware. I wonder what the minimum time of undercutting at a loss service they can offer is without it being considered anti-competitive. [1] They guarantee 7 years of free service https://fiber.goog…

Is there any evidence that they are operating at a loss? For 2013 Comcast reported 13.5 billion operating income on 64.6 revenue [1]. This means that they could potentially lower their prices 20% without incurring in losses. If we assume that Google is able to operate more efficiently, which isn't such a bold assumption, they could potentially undercut prices even more. On top of that, we could also assume that in te…

Everybody other than Google reports that installing fiber costs over $1,000 per home, but Google is selling it for $300 and saying "trust us".

Re: Google Fiber Austin

#65
post #3

It is sad that silicon valley has been so slow to adopt google fiber

MonkeyBrains is currently offering Gigabit wireless in SF[1] on Indiegogo, $2500 setup fees and $30 monthly. estimated delivery date is early February next year.

1: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/gigabit-wireless-to-the-h...

Re: Google Fiber Austin

#66
post #63
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there any evidence that they are operating at a loss? For 2013 Comcast reported 13.5 billion operating income on 64.6 revenue [1]. This means that they could potentially lower their prices 20% without incurring in losses. If we assume that Google is able to operate more efficiently, which isn't such a bold assumption, they could potentially undercut prices even more. On top of that, we could also assume that in te…

Everybody other than Google reports that installing fiber costs over $1,000 per home, but Google is selling it for $300 and saying "trust us".

[deleted]

Re: Google Fiber Austin

#67
post #6

I still think Google is at risk of forming a monopoly and are at risk of becoming Bell 2.0. Unfortunately due to the lack of quality ISP's, the first to offer residential fiber to the perimeter will rapidly absorb the market.

> Unfortunately due to the lack of quality ISP's, the first to offer residential fiber to the perimeter will rapidly absorb the market. Is there a historical precedent that suggests that this will happen? The major telcos continue to grow their profits year over year while decreasing their capital spending. I think the much more likely response to any success on google's part will be - cities growing impatient for th…

This is a good point. AT&T's response to Google Fiber in Austin actually rolled out long before Google Fiber itself.
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