Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google Fiber Austin

fiber.google.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 157 posts

Re: Google Fiber Austin

#81

Post by bluedino »

wcchandler wrote: post #76

Why don't we see more startups in the fiber-to-the-premises realm? Is cost really that high and difficult to obtain? HN has led me to believe that a good idea with motivated founders will get funded, no matter what. And I can't think of a better time to enter this market.

People are probably more likely to fun a startup with a few million in hopes of cashing out later for 50-100x the initial investment. Not spend $84 million to build out a city like Kansas City, and then who knows how much income they get back from subscribers or how much it costs to support.

Re: Google Fiber Austin

#82

Post by kansface »

cmsmith wrote: post #10
oimaz wrote: post #3

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

It is sad that with all the would-be entrepreneurs flocking to Silicon Valley and looking for startup ideas, they all shy away from 'hard' problems like disrupting the current ISP model.

The problem is that ISPs don't need disruption- local politics does. As hard as starting a new bank or writing a new OS is, who wants to sign up for disrupting every local and state government in the country and incur the cost of laying all that fiber? This is why only Google is doing it. They have the money to burn and the clout to get municipalities to cooperate through all or nothing deals.

Re: Google Fiber Austin

#83

Post by elpachuco »

baddox wrote: post #31
cmsmith wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is sad that with all the would-be entrepreneurs flocking to Silicon Valley and looking for startup ideas, they all shy away from 'hard' problems like disrupting the current ISP model.

It's not too surprising. Look at the crap companies like Uber and AirBnb get, even on HN, for disrupting government rackets. I would shy away from that as well, even though there's obviously big opportunities there.

Only to become yet another racket. And maybe even more harmful than the last one.

Re: Google Fiber Austin

#84

Post by jobu »

pretz wrote: post #70

While I'm excited to see Google Fiber push into Austin, I've been very happy with my 110 mbps down / 11 mbps up from local company Grande: http://mygrande.com/internet/compare . Austin is lucky to have actual competition among cable and ISP providers, unlike many other cities.

It's surprising and unfortunate that they chose Austin then. There are so many other large cities out there with limited choices for fast internet.

Re: Google Fiber Austin

#85

Post by rayiner »

wcchandler wrote: post #76

Why don't we see more startups in the fiber-to-the-premises realm? Is cost really that high and difficult to obtain? HN has led me to believe that a good idea with motivated founders will get funded, no matter what. And I can't think of a better time to enter this market.

Because FTTP involves massive upfront costs with no hope of 10x or 100x returns. Say you sell fiber at $70/month. The operating profit margin of a company like Charter, which doesn't have a media-arm to rely on, is like 10-15%. So per year, each subscriber is worth $80-126. Over 10 years, discounted, that's under a grand. And to wire them up, you have to spend about that much if not more, up-front.

Re: Google Fiber Austin

#86

Post by exelius »

wmf wrote: post #44
exelius wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many types of hard problems. Some are hard because the data just isn't there, and someone needs to connect the dots. The ISP model is hard because it just requires fucking shit tons of money to solve, and there's no getting around the tragedy of the commons problem. With telecom infrastructure, you can either use wired (expensive and with a heavily fragmented regulatory environment) or wireless (expensive w…

BTW, speaking of gigabit disruption in San Francisco: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/gigabit-wireless-to-the-h...

Even technologies like this face many of the same challenges as traditional wired or wireless solutions: operating at any sort of scale is tremendously expensive. I wouldn't call this "disruptive" as much as a local workaround to an ineffective local regulatory system.

Re: Google Fiber Austin

#87

Post by jakobegger »

siong1987 wrote: post #65
oimaz wrote: 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...

I'm sceptical. There've been a couple of Wifi-based local ISPs who went bankrupt where I live (in Austria).

Re: Google Fiber Austin

#88

Post by wmf »

r00fus wrote: post #75
psychometry wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that smart people in both business and technology are attracted to hard problems that are intellectually challenging. Dealing with the corruption and the entrenched bureaucracy of local, state, and federal governments doesn't qualify as an "interesting" problem for these types of people. It's why you don't see many scientists in elected office.

It couldn't have anything to do with the fact that those fighting corruption are so often tarred and feathered and hung up as examples? Just take a look at Aaron Swartz, Chelsea Manning or Edward Snowden.

I would say that fighting corruption is the opposite approach to getting things done politically.

Re: Google Fiber Austin

#89

Post by jmsduran »

I have been living in Austin for roughly 4 years, but after checking the map it looks like my area may not get fiber for some years to come, as well as much of the greater Austin city limits, based off the progress I see from Google's initial Kansas rollout.

The one thing I hope that comes out of this, and the one thing I believe will benefit all Austin residents, would be the ability to negotiate for a lower monthly rate when their Internet/Cable contract renews sometime next year.

I hope that by April 2015 I have the leverage to call TWC and say: "Hey, Google fiber is offering Gigabit + TV for $130 a month, why can't my $155 monthly bill be lowered considering I pay for Internet + TV that is only 1/4 as fast?"

Re: Google Fiber Austin

#90

Post by javajosh »

logn wrote: post #60
javajosh wrote: post #21

Does anyone know for certain whether Google data mine's their Fiber data?

All information we collect about the use of Google Fiber TV (including use of programs and applications available through Google Fiber TV) may be associated with the Google Account being used for Google Fiber TV. ... information from the use of Google Fiber Internet (such as URLs of websites visited or content of communications) will not be associated with the Google Account you use for Fiber, except with your consen…

will not be associated with the Google Account you use for Fiber

This phrase has rather a lot of qualifications which make it trivially easy to circumvent. For example, Google might associate the data with a different account, an internal "ghost" account that you specifically don't use for Google Fiber (but which is identical to it in every way).

I for one would like to see ISPs make an effort to construct systems where even the owner of the ISP doesn't really store any information. For example, they may store differential information about traffic spikes, to help avert DOS attacks. But other than that, they only do what they get paid to do: shuttle bits back and forth across the last mile of internet.

Post reply on HN