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

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

#71
post #19
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?

There's no money in building "dumb pipes" to the internet. Verizon's wireline margin over the last couple of quarters has been under 5% (http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/01/verizon-nears-the-en...). Note Google has never revealed how much profit Fiber actually makes.

The existing networks are fast enough to service what makes the money: video services. The cable companies will only upgrade the pipes to the extent that it threatens usage of their video service.

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

#72
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 fir…

My thoughts too. However, I live in a Charter serviced area and when doing my research when switching from ATT, I noticed they only offer 1 speed. There are no tiers. 1 speed, 1 price Also, I just looked up a price quote for Troy (near city hall) and noticed they indicate their speeds start at 100Mbps for 39.99. Granted you said they live out farther, but they may be able to get more. My wife's internet at her studio…

100?! That's phenomenal... I'll give them a call tonight and ask them to check with Charter and see what is available (for a decent price/a price they are OK with).

Thanks for the heads up!

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

#73
post #66

Great for competition now, sure, but once copper and coax become obsolete Google becomes the new incumbent monopoly. How is that good for anyone?

I believe that in amsterdam, even though you only have 1 fiber line running to your house, you can choose from many ISPs over that line. Since (I assume) google is not installing an entirely new fiber network, but merely buying fiber rights and doing last-mile construction, it seems like that would also be a reasonable framework to establish here. I'm not saying it would be easy. It would take a lot of legal work. Bu…

Google said they considered the open access model but rejected it. I don't think they explained why, though.

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

#74
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…

> CenturyLink and Cox were perfectly fine dabbling in 50mbps service for the rest of eternity without true competition.

Why isn't there competition between those two?

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

#76
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…

I've experienced the opposite so far in my area; I've received a data cap from Comcast for which my monthly overage charges exceed $100, on top of the $50 base cost, for the same 50Mbps service.

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

#77
post #74
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…

> CenturyLink and Cox were perfectly fine dabbling in 50mbps service for the rest of eternity without true competition. Why isn't there competition between those two?

I am sure there is - but I don't think CL had the capacity to really 'push' Cox. They weren't rolling out anything better than what Cox had, just comparable, so both were just happily sitting there for years and years not really bothering each other.

Then GFib comes in and suddenly everyone has piles of internet laying around ;)

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

#78
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 fir…

To put 'Getting Netflix' into perspective for you, my home connection is 2 Mbps down, 1 Mbps up and I have no issue watching Netflix steams with good enough quality to be enjoyable. We choose to get this slow connection due to the cost ($15/mo) and see no reason to pay for higher tiers of speed from Time Warner.

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

#79
post #74
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…

> CenturyLink and Cox were perfectly fine dabbling in 50mbps service for the rest of eternity without true competition. Why isn't there competition between those two?

I don't live there, but I guess it is an oligopoly. They probably offer identical (or very similar) services at similar prices, both making a huge profit. Neither wants to rock the highly profitable boat.
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