Google Fiber Network thread.......

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Really excited about the announcement today that Kansas City, Missouri will be included in the initial Google Fiber 1Gbps offering. If they deliver anywhere near that speed, I'll be all over no matter what the price. Our family income is heavily dependent on internet speed, so this is a huge deal for us. It should also help our property value quite a bit.

KansasCity.com | 404 (http://www.kansascity.com/2011/05/16/2880573/kcmo-to-get-superfast-google-hook.html#ixzz1Mc3gHPwS)

http://www.google.com/fiber/kansascity/index.html

[jeff061]

So jealous. Delete this thread and never mention it again.

Asshole.

[molson]

Can't MBBF get some really long cords or something and connect his internet to each of our houses?

[MrBug708]

Google Fiber for Communities: City/State list (http://www.google.com/appserve/fiberrfi/public/list)

[mckerney]

So jealous. Delete this thread and never mention it again.

Asshole.


+1

A local Telecom received federal stimulus money to run fiber optic lines where I live. Speeds will be up to a blazing 10 Mbps and they assholes are actually calling it high speed.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Google Fiber for Communities: City/State list (http://www.google.com/appserve/fiberrfi/public/list)

Amazing to see that list and see just how many cities wanted the initial offering. My understanding is that the extremely large railroad hub here in KC was the big reason that we beat out those cities in that list.

[jeff061]

Topeka 'renames' itself 'Google, Kansas' - CNN (http://articles.cnn.com/2010-03-02/tech/google.kansas.topeka_1_google-internet-capital-city?_s=PM:TECH)

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Is Google planning to offer IP video to Kansas City? (http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/02/kansas-google-fiber-you-want-ip-video-with-that.ars)

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Oh yeah! It's coming!

Google Fiber (https://fiber.google.com/savethedate)

Can't wait to see how this all rolls out. Looking forward to MUCH better speeds.

[cartman]

One of my clients has a 100MB connection for their office. We've noticed that the speed tests aren't much different than a 15MB cable modem connection. The issue is peering and bandwith limits at other places. Sure you have a really fast connection to your provider's equipment, but once you get out on the wild, wild Internet things slow down.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

One of my clients has a 100MB connection for their office. We've noticed that the speed tests aren't much different than a 15MB cable modem connection. The issue is peering and bandwith limits at other places. Sure you have a really fast connection to your provider's equipment, but once you get out on the wild, wild Internet things slow down.

Our main need is for my wife's work. She's downloading huge files constantly for her work over several hours. It's all on a privately controlled server, so the ability to download large amounts is available on that end. Unfortunately, the best speed we can get right now is around 10MB and that's on rare occasions. If she can get even double or triple that regularly, it would create a big income boost for us. I'm not even looking for high speeds as much as consistent speed. We'll see how it goes.

[kcchief19]

One of my clients has a 100MB connection for their office. We've noticed that the speed tests aren't much different than a 15MB cable modem connection. The issue is peering and bandwith limits at other places. Sure you have a really fast connection to your provider's equipment, but once you get out on the wild, wild Internet things slow down.
I think that has been overlooked quite a bit with the Google Fiber hype here in KC. If Netflix is having server issues, a gig connection won't resolve it.

That said, if you have a a gig coming to you everyone in your house could be streaming Netflix with no lag. Kansas City alone could crash the Internet.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Pricing plans are out. They start installing in September.......

https://fiber.google.com/plans/residential/

[sterlingice]

Sounds pretty reasonable

SI

[stevew]

The speed in which this technology moves is so unacceptable. I know that I don't live in the mecca of the world obviously, but it took forever for us to even get Verizon LTE. AT&T 4g could be forever, they only recently got 3G(way after everyone else had it). I'd say there is no chance we ever even get FIOS....the thought of this is a dream.

And the pricing is so much better on this than the $180 I pay for the privilege of 1mps up, cable and HBO.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Looks like early registrations are going very well despite this being the first day of pre-registration. 2 fiberhoods have already reached their goal and are guaranteed Google Fiber with several more getting very close. With the deadline being September 9th, I'd say they're going to get most of these neighborhoods to blow through their goal numbers very early. Hopefully that means additional neighborhoods will be added as an option at a quicker pace.

Google Fiber - Fiberhood Goal Tracking (https://fiber.google.com/cities/kcmo/#header=check)

[RainMaker]

Pricing plans are out. They start installing in September.......

https://fiber.google.com/plans/residential/

That looks like a pretty good deal. Wonder when the telcos come in trying to pass laws to ban it.

[Desnudo]

Glad to see Google is trying to blow up the telco oligarchy that screws the consumer

[Qrusher14242]

wow wish we could get free internet here. Thats like 5 times faster speed and i pay $30/month!(with Clearwire)

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Glad to see Google is trying to blow up the telco oligarchy that screws the consumer

Yeah, that's going to be almost as interesting as the service itself. I want to see how the other companies deal with the situation. Will they upgrade to fiber as well? Will they cut rates to compete using an inferior technology? Will they look to fight legally? It'll be fun to watch.

[kcchief19]

There are definitely pluses and minuses with today's info. With taxes and fees, the price is going to be closer to $80 a month for a gig. Now that's a great price compared to other fiber-to-the-home projects where the price has been closer to $300 a month. But if cable companies were to go to $50 a month for 50-100 gig, it's at least worth thinking about the savings.

One huge question is the bandwidth. The hints in the presentation today is that rather than having separate channels for TV and Internet, everything will be on one pipe. So if you're watching TV, that will come out of your gigabit bandwidth. Google also indicated that they will compress their HD video less than conventional cable, but we don't know to what level. That could mean that watching one channel could eat anywhere from 25-100 mbps. Not a huge deal, but definitely a factor.

Unless Google sweetens the TV offering, as it stands now it's a pretty bad deal -- $50 a month (plus fees, so call it $60) for a channel lineup that DOES NOT YET INCLUDE Disney/ABC/ESPN (no Disney Channel or ESPN networks), Fox (no Fox Sports or Fox News), Time Warner (TNT, TBS, CNN, etc.) or any movie channels other than Showtime (which will be a premium service). That's a really crappy lineup.

That said, if they keep the $50 TV price and add ESPN, Fox and Time Warner, that's a great deal. But Google needs them more than they need Google. And I will bet that TWC, Comcast and the satellites are putting pressure on all three not to negotiate a retrans deal with Google.

We also don't know what impact individual users will have on bandwidth. KC is going to be the new hub for video piracy if you can run a gigabit network out of your house for $80 a month. What will be the impact on your bandwidth if your next door neighbor is file sharing The Pirate Bay?

Frankly, the biggest game changer getting no attention is the 5 mbps for seven years for $300. That's a real great deal for lite Internet users that don't stream video.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

There are definitely pluses and minuses with today's info. With taxes and fees, the price is going to be closer to $80 a month for a gig. Now that's a great price compared to other fiber-to-the-home projects where the price has been closer to $300 a month. But if cable companies were to go to $50 a month for 50-100 gig, it's at least worth thinking about the savings.

One huge question is the bandwidth. The hints in the presentation today is that rather than having separate channels for TV and Internet, everything will be on one pipe. So if you're watching TV, that will come out of your gigabit bandwidth. Google also indicated that they will compress their HD video less than conventional cable, but we don't know to what level. That could mean that watching one channel could eat anywhere from 25-100 mbps. Not a huge deal, but definitely a factor.

Unless Google sweetens the TV offering, as it stands now it's a pretty bad deal -- $50 a month (plus fees, so call it $60) for a channel lineup that DOES NOT YET INCLUDE Disney/ABC/ESPN (no Disney Channel or ESPN networks), Fox (no Fox Sports or Fox News), Time Warner (TNT, TBS, CNN, etc.) or any movie channels other than Showtime (which will be a premium service). That's a really crappy lineup.

That said, if they keep the $50 TV price and add ESPN, Fox and Time Warner, that's a great deal. But Google needs them more than they need Google. And I will bet that TWC, Comcast and the satellites are putting pressure on all three not to negotiate a retrans deal with Google.

We also don't know what impact individual users will have on bandwidth. KC is going to be the new hub for video piracy if you can run a gigabit network out of your house for $80 a month. What will be the impact on your bandwidth if your next door neighbor is file sharing The Pirate Bay?

Frankly, the biggest game changer getting no attention is the 5 mbps for seven years for $300. That's a real great deal for lite Internet users that don't stream video.

If I had 1 GB service, I'm not sure I'd even bother with TV. I'd probably just purchase the other things a la carte and/or sign up for a Netflix/Hulu premium service. I find myself really only using a limited amount of channels anyway. Just too damn busy.

With that said, I knew you'd chime in with some good info. Thanks. :)

[kcchief19]

Yeah, that's going to be almost as interesting as the service itself. I want to see how the other companies deal with the situation. Will they upgrade to fiber as well? Will they cut rates to compete using an inferior technology? Will they look to fight legally? It'll be fun to watch.
AT&T is apparently punting. They've put a freeze on expanding uVerse, and there have been rumors they may be putting their local uVerse customer base on the for-sale market.

Comcast is probably fairly insular for a while. Even if Google decides to take expand their experiment, it will take several years before they reach Comacast markets in the suburbs.

TWC has a lot of options available to them regarding price and service upgrades. The company has been pretty straightforward in public saying they have zero plans to take fiber-to-the-home in any market. What's a more likely example is if you look to their Wi-Fi network in Los Angeles and providing "Internet everywhere" for subscribers to use Wi-Fi away from home.

I'm equally interested in seeing what Google actually plans to do. Their original point with Google Fiber was to prove it could be done and to influence Congress and the FCC to accelerate the national broadband project and prove that superfast Internet service was easier and cheaper to do than the cable companies claim. In theory, they had no interest in setting up a national ISP. However, they had done a lot of work in that direction and own several new patents for fiber delivery, set top boxes and IPTV technology. That's definitely worth something.

Google's agreements are actually partnerships with both the city and the power companies, which happen to own a ton of dark fiber and many of the poles Google is attaching to. Those same agreements with the electric utilities give Google the option of pulling out of the project any time after three years, and the electric companies have the right to purchase at fair market value, minus their investment already put into Google Fiber. These deals were structured in a way that seemed very likely that the electric utilities would own these networks in 10-15 years.

That's the next competition for the cable companies. Utility companies have been building dark fiber nationwide for decades ... they just didn't know what to do with it. Now Google is showing them.

[Desnudo]

Anyone have FIOS Quantum - claiming up to 300 MBS download? Of course their speed test on my current Fios says 26 MBS when I swear I've never seen anything faster than 6-7 MBS

[mckerney]

Anyone have FIOS Quantum - claiming up to 300 MBS download? Of course their speed test on my current Fios says 26 MBS when I swear I've never seen anything faster than 6-7 MBS

They advertise 300 Mbps*, which is a max speed of about 38 MBps*. And I'm sure they claim in small print that that's the maximum speed while actual speed may vary based on network congestion.

Plus downloads are going to also be limited by the speed that data is being sent to you, so for typical downloads it may be that you're only being sent data at 6-7 MBps.

*1 MBps (Megabytes per second, the way speed is typically shown when you download something on your computer) = 8 Mbps (Megabits per second, the way bandwidth speeds are advertised by ISPs [which I'm sure is done because most people don't realize the different between a capital and lowercase b so if two companies were offering the same speed at the same price but one listed Mbps and the other MBps most people would go with the company listing Mbps because it looks faster])

[Desnudo]

I had no idea about the mbps thing.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Interesting situation that is showing up using the 'fiberhood' registration system. The idea behind the system was to provide low-cost internet to all neighborhoods. Now take a look at this map.........

Google Fiber (http://fiber.google.com/cities/kcmo/#header=check)

See that dividing line between the green fiberhoods (met registration goal) and the yellow fiberhoods (not met registration goal). That is known in Kansas City as the 'Troost Wall'. To the right of that line is the poorer areas of KC. To the left is the nicer areas. Turns out that even with the reduced cost, the poorer neighborhoods still aren't interested.

I've heard that Google is formulating options to break down that 'wall', but for now, it's a stark contrast that shows where the city is split.

[gstelmack]

Well, maybe getting computers to the people in the poorer section so they could use the connection?

[lordscarlet]

Are they not interested, do they not have computers, or did they not know about registration?

[Scoobz0202]

Are they not interested, do they not have computers, or did they not know about registration?

I'd be curious if it is simply exposure and knowledge of Google's Fiber network. But I have no idea how it has been marketed and spread in the Kansas City area.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Are they not interested, do they not have computers, or did they not know about registration?

I'd be curious if it is simply exposure and knowledge of Google's Fiber network. But I have no idea how it has been marketed and spread in the Kansas City area.

I think some of it has to do with the lack of exposure in those areas. Google is marketing heavily via the internet and TV in our area. I'm not sure that the people in those areas, since the income is lower, actually know much about the offering. But that's obviously a problem in itself. I think Google is trying to figure out how to cross that divide.

I'm sure kcchief19 will be able to add to this discussion. I know he was involved in the industry here in KC and will know what hurdles have to be crossed in those areas.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

dola

Noticed that they've added information on channel lineups, free Nexus 7 tablet, and discounted Chromebooks available for customers.

https://fiber.google.com/plans/residential/

[Ragone]

Its odd really.. kcchief mbbf and myself all live roughly 10 minutes from each other... so lets hope we all end up getting g fiber in our area..

honestly.. i'd probably pay the 300 for 6-7 years of internet.. i don't need insane speeds honestly..

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Its odd really.. kcchief mbbf and myself all live roughly 10 minutes from each other... so lets hope we all end up getting g fiber in our area..

honestly.. i'd probably pay the 300 for 6-7 years of internet.. i don't need insane speeds honestly..

We'll be getting it in North KC. They've already said we'll be in the second phase of pre-registration.

Google Fiber Blog (http://googlefiberblog.blogspot.com/2012/07/answering-your-questions-about-google.html)

1. When are you building to North and South Kansas City, Mo.?

Our first pre-registration phase includes homes in Kansas City, Kan. and homes in Central Kansas City, Mo. But we are definitely committed to serving homes in North and South Kansas City, Mo. in our second pre-registration phase. Residents should stay tuned to google.com/fiber and this blog for more information.

[kcchief19]

I was absolutely stunned on launch day that Google was using the maps to show registrations. It was an absolute recipe for disaster to vividly illustrate the gap between the haves and the have nots when it comes to broadband.

The existing market penetration for broadband in these neighborhoods are very low already, maybe 10-15% or less in some areas. Most households don't have a computer, and don't have $500 to shell out for the netbook/Internet offer.

On top of that, these neighborhoods have higher rental rates and multifamily units. Google is still have problems dealing with apartment renters who want to register. But for rental homes its up to the owner to signup since the connection is tied to the home -- you can't take Google Fiber with you. It's up to landlords to setup the service, and so far they aren't showing a lot of willingness to do it.

The fault is two-fold. First, Google has completely punted on their original stated goals for this -- creating an open network that makes super fast broadband access available to everyone. They've closed the network and aren't exactly blowing the doors off on pricing.

Second, non-profit groups and the city aren't putting their money where their mouth is. For $5 million you could provide a netbook and Google Fiber to 10,000 homes. Why aren't local foundations and the city that have been giving Google free advertising and promotion raising the money to make this happen? For about $7 million you could give every kid in the Kansas City, Mo., School District a netbook and Google Fiber.

That would be a game changer. But the nonprofit, business and civic communities are doing absolutely nothing.

[Desnudo]

Why doesn't Google just do that?

[SteveMax58]

The fault is two-fold. First, Google has completely punted on their original stated goals for this -- creating an open network that makes super fast broadband access available to everyone. They've closed the network and aren't exactly blowing the doors off on pricing.

Google is doing this as a calculated business ploy. From a practical standpoint, they have absolutely no idea how to be a service provider. And they don't have any intention of really being one for long.

What that means is that they are perfectly fine outsourcing nearly all of this for a gigantic loss that they try to absorb into "other" areas of their business so as to not appear unprofitable with Google Fiber...in the name of getting more favorable regulatory reform which forces real service providers to offer "internet" for a reduced rate. A rate, mind you, that Google could not sustain a viable business model on themselves.

I don't mean to imply that there are not valid alternatives to the conventional "service provider" model where you wait for them to justify the cost of adding customers. But I just find Google's example to be complete bullshit.

[Buccaneer]

Why do I keep seeing Goober Network in the thread title?

Seriously, I would love to some fiber network alternative here.

[sterlingice]

Why do I keep seeing Goober Network in the thread title?

Seriously, I would love to some fiber network alternative here.

Wait, so Bucc saw "Goober Network" and wants more fiber. Can't resist old jokes... :D

SI

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Google grabs the ABC family of networks, including ESPN. Initial group of fiberhoods to receive service will be announced tomorrow.

Google Fiber Blog (http://googlefiberblog.blogspot.com/2012/09/update-on-google-fiber-tv-channel-lineup.html)

[kcchief19]

That really leaves Fox and Time Warner Inc. as the last holdouts. Doesn't surprise me because on the current environment those two have taken hard line stances on retransmission and other video rights for providers. It a long time for Time Warner Cable and Time Warner Inc. to get a deal on HBOGo, and Fox negotiations have gone down the wire and beyond a lot lately.

I'm more optimistic they will get deals done and have a strong channel lineup at launch. But one thing missing has been details on a TV Everywhere package with Google. Will you have WatchESPN or apps they let you watch channels on mobile devices?

I dropped by the Google Fiber store an came away with two impressions:
1) They are just like cable providers in talking out of their ass. They gave answers that I know are wrong. They also had the local Fox station on in SD and said it was because they didn't have the HD version.
2) They are going to nickel and dime you just like other cable providers. They are going with a satellite model where you own the equipment. You will get free modem, a free storage server and a free receiver. Additional equipment or replacing equipment will be charged. No word in costs that I've seen.

That's probably mixed news for most. Some people like owning their equipment. I actually prefer the cable lease plan.

Be interesting to see the timeframe for rollout.

[kcchief19]

Interesting additions today ... Google has signed up the Turner Broadcasting subsidiary of Time Warner Inc., which means CNN, TNT, TBS, MLBN, Cartoon Network and others are now in TW channel lineup. It does not include sister company HBO, which is a separate subsidiary of Time Warner Inc. Not unusual for those deals to be done separately but it would be odd not to have HBO at all.

That leaves Fox/News Corp. as the last holdout.

Google also rolled out their construction schedule through 2013. So it looks like MBBF and I will have to wait until 2014 or so. :)

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Somewhere, Cartman just screamed like a little girl........

Google Fiber Blog - Next Stop, Austin (http://googlefiberblog.blogspot.com/2013/04/google-fibers-next-stop-austin-texas_9.html)

[kcchief19]

I really hate my city sometimes. The guy who is KCMO's point man for Google Fiber continually spins all sorts of positive angles out of Google Fiber, and now is taking the argument that Google going to Austin is good news for Kansas City.

The more places that have fiber is bad for Kansas City, especially if those cities are perceived to be cooler or hipper than KC. So many people are arguing that fiber is going to attract all these high-tech jobs to KC, not realizing that as soon as other places have fiber that competitive advantage is gone.

Austin is about to be overwhelmed by even more hipsters.

[cschex]

Yay, more reasons for people to move to Austin.

Seriously though, the fiber will be pretty cool

[cartman]

I'm glad that it is coming to Austin, but I'm not holding my breath about it making it all the way out to where I am. Our development is the end of the line for cable Internet.

[bigdawg2003]

I'm excited - will make a lovely 30th birthday present to myself next year.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

I really hate my city sometimes. The guy who is KCMO's point man for Google Fiber continually spins all sorts of positive angles out of Google Fiber, and now is taking the argument that Google going to Austin is good news for Kansas City.

The more places that have fiber is bad for Kansas City, especially if those cities are perceived to be cooler or hipper than KC. So many people are arguing that fiber is going to attract all these high-tech jobs to KC, not realizing that as soon as other places have fiber that competitive advantage is gone.

Austin is about to be overwhelmed by even more hipsters.

I generally agree, but I don't care too much as long as it ends up in my neighborhood soon. I'm not terribly pleased with the rollout pace, but it'll be worth the wait once it happens. Our area should see a heavy adoption rate and be one of the early neighborhoods to get it in the Northland.

[fantom1979]

I wonder how much it would cost to split fiber line from Mizzou's house to mine in Detroit.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

I wonder how much it would cost to split fiber line from Mizzou's house to mine in Detroit.

The signal would likely get degraded to only 100MB speed on your end. We can't have that.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

A third city has been added........

Google Fiber Blog (http://googlefiberblog.blogspot.com/2013/04/silicon-slopes.html)

[SackAttack]

Somebody needs to take away MBBF's period button.

Not everything needs a terminal ellipse.

[jeff061]

Out of all places....Provo? I guess it may help a man entertain his 13 wives.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Out of all places....Provo? I guess it may help a man entertain his 13 wives.

Sounds like most of it had to do with the fiber network already in place there. They just have to upgrade it and they're ready to go.

[Lonnie]

I sell fiber to the home equipment to a company that covers Provo. I wonder if Google is just buying up their fiber from them? That would be bad news for me.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

I sell fiber to the home equipment to a company that covers Provo. I wonder if Google is just buying up their fiber from them? That would be bad news for me.

The post said they were upgrading the existing network. Not sure if that means buying or if they get some kind of provider agreement.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Nice move by Google. TV was controlled only by Android devices previously. They've now added an app on Apple iPad to control TV as well.

Google Fiber Blog (http://googlefiberblog.blogspot.com/2013/04/google-fiber-tv-app-for-ipad-is-here.html)

[kcchief19]

Nice move by Google. TV was controlled only by Android devices previously. They've now added an app on Apple iPad to control TV as well.

Google Fiber Blog (http://googlefiberblog.blogspot.com/2013/04/google-fiber-tv-app-for-ipad-is-here.html)
Their TV offering is still way behind the competition. I haven't seen them comment on when/if they will have a TV Everywhere feature that will stream networks and VOD to mobile devices, whether inside or outside the home.

They finally added HBO and Cinemax. For all of Google's preaching about competition opening up the marketplace, they are offering HBO at $20 a month, the highest price any cable system is offering HBO. Most are in the $15-17 range. That does no favor for consumers. And since Google's model isn't based on churn and premium video isn't a significant profit center for them, it's doubtful to expect any special offers like free HBO for a period of time or sales.

[MacroGuru]

I sell fiber to the home equipment to a company that covers Provo. I wonder if Google is just buying up their fiber from them? That would be bad news for me.

Chances they are. The Utopia project has been a major fail in a lot of peoples yes and was fought by a lot of the old farts of the area for years so the roll out sucked.

[ISiddiqui]

They finally added HBO and Cinemax. For all of Google's preaching about competition opening up the marketplace, they are offering HBO at $20 a month, the highest price any cable system is offering HBO. Most are in the $15-17 range. That does no favor for consumers. And since Google's model isn't based on churn and premium video isn't a significant profit center for them, it's doubtful to expect any special offers like free HBO for a period of time or sales.

Well, that's more a product of HBO's business model. When HBO says cable companies keep prices down (mostly because the cable companies do the advertising for HBO), they aren't lying.

It also means any potential non-cable HBOGO offering would be at least $30/month if they did so.

[SteveMax58]

Yeah I can tell you with certainty cable operators do not make any real money on HBO. Its more of a loss leader.

Actually, we have determined that we make MUCH more money on Netflix than HBO. And we don't offer Netflix. You can figure out what that means I'm sure. :)

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Their TV offering is still way behind the competition. I haven't seen them comment on when/if they will have a TV Everywhere feature that will stream networks and VOD to mobile devices, whether inside or outside the home.

They finally added HBO and Cinemax. For all of Google's preaching about competition opening up the marketplace, they are offering HBO at $20 a month, the highest price any cable system is offering HBO. Most are in the $15-17 range. That does no favor for consumers. And since Google's model isn't based on churn and premium video isn't a significant profit center for them, it's doubtful to expect any special offers like free HBO for a period of time or sales.

They're charging a price that actually makes money only to those that have HBO. I'd rather have that any day over what I get on services like Time Warner where they charge $12-15/month and pad their basic and basic plus channel service prices to make up the difference. I don't need specials when you're pushing 1GB speeds into my home. That's special enough.

[kcchief19]

Google Fiber earns good grades from early customers in KCK - KansasCity.com (http://www.kansascity.com/2013/04/28/4207582/early-google-fiber-customers-in.html#storylink=misearch)

Customer feedback on Google Fiber so far. Pretty much what I expected. The Internet service is attractive for its price and convenience but it's not earth shattering. The TV experience is pretty shaky -- lots of freezing channels and glitches, things that don't make sense.

Customer service is rated very high ... But they may have only a few thousand customers at most. Will it be the same when customers are in the millions?

I've been curious if Google allows third-party routers. There was a reference in the article that Wi-fi is shaky at times an doesn't always reach the entire home. I'll have to ask about that next time I have a meeting at the Google Fiber store.

[kcchief19]

Yeah I can tell you with certainty cable operators do not make any real money on HBO. Its more of a loss leader.

Actually, we have determined that we make MUCH more money on Netflix than HBO. And we don't offer Netflix. You can figure out what that means I'm sure. :)
I worked for a cable operator and I can tell you that is not true. HBO is a definite profit center even with the periodic specials. The break even point varies, but usually as long as the customer keeps a premium service at least six months, the company makes money.

I still say that $20 a month with no HBOGo is an absolute ripoff. Time Warner Inc. doesn't like what Google is doing, and the HBO/premium division of TW Inc. are complete jag offs. They know Google had to have HBO and made them pay the highest rate possible. Also gives HBO more leverage with other operators.

I have no doubt Netflix drives cable profits. Internet service has a ridiculously high margin, and if you're able to get people to upgrade their Internet service so they can stream video, it's a massive profit per user. There is almost no marginal cost to offer 30mbps versus 5mbps per second but the cost difference can be $30-40 or more.

[mckerney]

Looks like Google's plan may be working in some places.

Vermont Telephone Company's gigabit internet service is live, half the price of Google Fiber (http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/28/vermount-telephone-companys-gigabit-internet/)

[Desnudo]

Die oligarchy die!

[SteveMax58]

I worked for a cable operator and I can tell you that is not true. HBO is a definite profit center even with the periodic specials. The break even point varies, but usually as long as the customer keeps a premium service at least six months, the company makes money.

I dont know how long ago you are going back but this is not the case these days, nor has it been for a number of years now. And thats not a guess from what some coworker has told me.

Its relative of course. Its not like ESPN where you are grossly overpaying & subsidizing the rest of the lineup around it...but as a standalone product offering it isnt highly profitable.

And FYI many of the specials (i.e. HBO free for 6 months!) are not paid for by the operator. Customer retention deals, yes. But not widespread HBO free for 90 days type of specials. Thats typically a contractual option which has limitations for when & how often...but it isnt indicative of the amount of profit an operator is making.

Untangling all of the financial interleaves of the business is not an easy task. There is more obfuscation of where cost is ultimately being derived than the government I think. But I assure you anybody charging at or under $20 for HBO is not raking in the profits when factoring in the programming cost + ancillary costs.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Google Fiber earns good grades from early customers in KCK - KansasCity.com (http://www.kansascity.com/2013/04/28/4207582/early-google-fiber-customers-in.html#storylink=misearch)

Customer feedback on Google Fiber so far. Pretty much what I expected. The Internet service is attractive for its price and convenience but it's not earth shattering. The TV experience is pretty shaky -- lots of freezing channels and glitches, things that don't make sense.

Customer service is rated very high ... But they may have only a few thousand customers at most. Will it be the same when customers are in the millions?

I've been curious if Google allows third-party routers. There was a reference in the article that Wi-fi is shaky at times an doesn't always reach the entire home. I'll have to ask about that next time I have a meeting at the Google Fiber store.

I'll take that anyday. TWC and AT&T both have glitches in their TV regularly (I've gone back and forth between both) and their internet service crawls at times (we currently have both AT&T and TWC internet going into our house and have a switch box that selects the best connection on the fly for my wife's work at home). I'll take dramatically improved internet speeds and TV service that's roughly the same and not complain a bit.

[kcchief19]

I dont know how long ago you are going back but this is not the case these days, nor has it been for a number of years now. And thats not a guess from what some coworker has told me.
I'm not guessing either. If your argument is correct, then cable has a broken financial model and should just get out of the business entirely.

If HBO is a loss leader, why would you promote HBObto your existing customers? HBO should be something you only offer to gain new subs or retain current subs. It shouldn't be something you actively pitch to your sub base. Of it is a loss leader, why would you incentivize employees to upsell premium channels?

What do you think the profit for HBO is for an MSO? Even a dollar a sub per month is tens of millions for Comcast and TWC. If you look at the price per MSO, I would have no doubt smaller operators work at thinner margins.

If you have a gig of fiber and HBO is $20 a month, why wouldn't you torrent the heck out of HBO shows and movies? It's an invitation to piracy.

[kcchief19]

I'll take that anyday. TWC and AT&T both have glitches in their TV regularly (I've gone back and forth between both) and their internet service crawls at times (we currently have both AT&T and TWC internet going into our house and have a switch box that selects the best connection on the fly for my wife's work at home). I'll take dramatically improved internet speeds and TV service that's roughly the same and not complain a bit.
From what I've seen this far, you'll have dramatically improved TV service and clearly inferior TV service. I saw a demo at the Google store where local HD channels and even some cable HD channels looked like hell. There is little logic to the TV lineup and there are some gaps.

Can they improve? No doubt they will. I'd take it too at this point. AT&T has not improved on four years, and has actually regressed as a product. Varies by market, but TWC has actually improved in a lot of areas. Customer service is the big failing.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

From what I've seen this far, you'll have dramatically improved TV service and clearly inferior TV service. I saw a demo at the Google store where local HD channels and even some cable HD channels looked like hell. There is little logic to the TV lineup and there are some gaps.

Can they improve? No doubt they will. I'd take it too at this point. AT&T has not improved on four years, and has actually regressed as a product. Varies by market, but TWC has actually improved in a lot of areas. Customer service is the big failing.

Yeah, customer service is the big hang-up. I've had to call over and over again to get things fixed. If I'm getting people to talk to and automatic credits for service interruption, I at least feel like someone cares.

[SteveMax58]

I'm not guessing either. If your argument is correct, then cable has a broken financial model and should just get out of the business entirely.

If HBO is a loss leader, why would you promote HBObto your existing customers? HBO should be something you only offer to gain new subs or retain current subs. It shouldn't be something you actively pitch to your sub base. Of it is a loss leader, why would you incentivize employees to upsell premium channels?

What do you think the profit for HBO is for an MSO? Even a dollar a sub per month is tens of millions for Comcast and TWC. If you look at the price per MSO, I would have no doubt smaller operators work at thinner margins.

If you have a gig of fiber and HBO is $20 a month, why wouldn't you torrent the heck out of HBO shows and movies? It's an invitation to piracy.

Hmm...not sure I care to go down this discussion path in any more detail with the amount of misinformation you are throwing out there. I yield...you win. :)

[kcchief19]

Hmm...not sure I care to go down this discussion path in any more detail with the amount of misinformation you are throwing out there. I yield...you win. :)
Whatever. I don't know where your information is coming from so I have no way to judge the accuracy of your information. I've worked for a MSO within the past 18 months and I still read quite a bit on the subject. I'll tell what I know and think within the bounds of my ethical responsibilities regarding confidential information.

If you want to go do a search of publicly available information and see that it's estimated HBO rakes in about $8 per month per subscriber from MSOs, and you want to argue that is a loss leader, good luck. That pig don't fly.

EDIT: My guess is that you and I come from different backgrounds and have different pieces of information. Put them together and we may learn that the revenues to MSOs from premium channels are more than you think and the expense to MSOs for delivering premium channels is more than I think.

[kcchief19]

Yeah, customer service is the big hang-up. I've had to call over and over again to get things fixed. If I'm getting people to talk to and automatic credits for service interruption, I at least feel like someone cares.
Exactly. My real question is how will customer service for Google work as more and more subs hit the system. They appear to be very proactive now, but I'm not sure how many users they have. I would think it's a few thousand by now but it may still be in the hundreds. What's it look like if they have 300,000 in KC, 240,000 in Austin and more and more popping up.

Given that my family watches a lot of TV, I wish the TV quality and service was stronger. They are still essentially in beta testing, so it should improve.

But long term, I'm still not sold that Google wants to be an Internet service provider. I'm still convinced they simply want to goose the market, prompt the big companies to expanding and upgrading their networks and maybe license technology. It would appear from their patent filings they have some breakthroughs that would make fiber to the home less expensive.

In the KC agreements the electric utility companies are partners in the agreements and have the opportunity to buy Google out at fair market value if Google ever decides to abandon the project. If Google ever pulls out of the fiber business, will customer service be the first thing to go?

[Desnudo]

Omaha come on down! Not as great a deal as google. Good to see some competition generating though.

http://gigaom.com/2013/05/01/centurylink-gets-gigabit-fever-in-omaha/

[kcchief19]

Impressive. $80 bundled and $150 standalone actually isn't a bad price. It's more expensive compared to Google, but when compared to other FTTH projects nationwide that's a really good deal. Before Google came along, $300 plus was the going rate.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

One of my buddies was excited to see this in front of his house this morning....

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/485868_10201259032665664_1271866848_n.jpg

Should have good info on speeds from him in a few days.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

It's our turn! Just got info that our neighborhood can start signing up for Google Fiber service in March 2014!

I'm just a little bit excited.

[kcchief19]

Good news they are coming north ... bad news that I haven't heard about our neighborhood yet. We're not that far away!

Bear Communications has been doing fiber work along 112th street near the KCP&L substation. Google has a deal to use KCP&L facilities and dark fiber already in place. Bear does work for Google and Time Warner Cable, so it's hard to tell the provider for sure.

Did you get an email or hear through the grapevine? Did a quick search and didn't see any official announcement about going north of the river.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

It was on the Google Fiber Blog. Exact neighborhoods weren't mentioned, but they've already outlined the area of NKC that is getting fiber in their 'coming soon' map on the official website. If you're in the populated area between I-35 and I-435 in NKC, you're getting it.

We also have some news for those of you who are in areas that haven’t been able to get Fiber yet. In March, folks in Kansas City, North, South Kansas City, Mo, Gladstone, Grandview and Raytown will be able to start signing up for Google Fiber. Just like our first wave of sign-ups, we’ll divide these areas into small sections called “fiberhoods.” In each fiberhood, a certain number of homes will need to sign up for service in order to qualify their area for Google Fiber — so get ready to rally your neighbors! We’ll have more info to share (along with a map of the fiberhoods) in the beginning of 2014.

Google Fiber Blog (http://googlefiberblog.blogspot.com/2013/11/another-chance-to-get-fiber-in-kansas.html)

[kcchief19]

Wow ... they buried the lead on that one. I saw the news and the blog entry about giving the existing fiberhoods a second chance to sign up but I think a lot of people missed the part about the new signup areas in March.

I still can't find the coming soon map. As good as Google is, their fiber website is a convoluted mess.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Oh man. Google Fiber trucks in the neighborhood. They're starting to put in hardware in KC North, getting ready for the March sign-up. Sounds like they picked our area to be next because of the interest level in this part of the city.

Can't come quick enough.

[kcchief19]

Friend of mine snapped a pick of a Google Fiber vehicle working on cable along North Oak. Seems to be picking up steam.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Pretty similar experience to what I've heard about amongst friends who have the service.......

Google Fiber: Why you need to get online 100 times faster | Fox News (http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2014/01/24/google-fiber-why-need-to-get-online-100-times-faster/?intcmp=features)

[Ragone]

Looks like a lot of cable being laid along 291

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Looks like a lot of cable being laid along 291

Was told they'll be laying a full cable the length of 152 Hwy on the north end of KC as well. Makes sense.

[cartman]

Was told they'll be laying a full cable the length of 152 Hwy on the north end of KC as well. Makes sense.

Doesn't make sense to lay half of a cable.

[Ragone]

Can't wait to dump time warner with extreme prejudice..

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Main line being laid in our neighborhood. Getting fired up now.

Had a guy come into the winery yesterday and he already has Google Fiber (lives in KCK). He and his wife are big Star Wars MMO players and he's a PC tech for a corporation in the area. He said once he made sure his entire network in his home was all 1GB routers/switches, he had no problem puling 900 Mbps. He said that the bottleneck in his system is now his graphics card on his PC. Said he never though there would be a point where the internet speed isn't the bottleneck when playing online.

He did have some advice on making sure you get hooked up sooner rather than later. He said the boxes on the outside of the house usually come pretty quickly. What can take some time if you don't get on top of it is the appointment to get your house set up. Said as soon as you start receiving correspondence via e-mail or notes left on door, call Google Fiber immediately for best results. Said that some of his friends used e-mail with mixed results and caused some delays.

Also did mention that you need to optimize your boxes for your house. He said to remember that the various boxes within the house can all be used as wireless points. So if you have some slow spots in your house, just switch on a box in that area to speed things up.

[Ragone]

I live down 291 from your winery.. Past the sonic and newer price chopper.. All kinds of cable everywhere.. Can't wait to be honest

[cartman]

Learn about Internet speed - Fiber Help (https://support.google.com/fiber/answer/2476912?hl=en&ref_topic=2476953)

Another thing to consider is that all points on the Internet between Google Fiber's network and the website you visit (including speed test websites) do not necessarily run at 1Gig. Even if our Fiber network and your devices are fully capable of achieving 1Gig speeds, Google cannot ensure that you will receive 1Gig speeds from end to end. Once your communication leaves the Fiber network, it might encounter segments of the Internet providing slower service—often due to heavy traffic or substantial rerouting delays—at any time. It is our hope that overall Internet performance will improve over time.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

I live down 291 from your winery.. Past the sonic and newer price chopper.. All kinds of cable everywhere.. Can't wait to be honest

My event coordinator lives up there. She mentioned that she'd seen line in her neighborhood. It's crazy to see how much infrastructure is being laid all of a sudden.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Time for some more cities to get excited. Google targeting 34 new cities for possible Google Fiber lines.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2014/02/exploring-new-cities-for-google-fiber.html

Map of cities being considered.......

https://fiber.google.com/newcities/

[Arles]

That would be sweet if Phoenix was added. Time to put a dent in the expensive Cox monopoly.

[Radii]

hm Raleigh is listed but not my town which is about 20 miles from both downtown Raleigh and downtown Durham.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

hm Raleigh is listed but not my town which is about 20 miles from both downtown Raleigh and downtown Durham.

As we've found in KC, the main thing is to get your metro area on board. If they get infrastructure in the main city, they give the smaller cities around the option to opt-in. We've had about 8-10 surrounding cities added since the initial announcement. I think at some level the civic leaders get pressured by their residents to jump in because of the increase in property value that it gives them.

[ISiddiqui]

OMG! OMG! Atlanta metro is being considered!!! Including Decatur and Avondale Estates (I currently live between the two cities).... happy!

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

OMG! OMG! Atlanta metro is being considered!!! Including Decatur and Avondale Estates (I currently live between the two cities).... happy!

Be sure to put your name/address in on their e-mail list on the site. They'll provide updates as the process moves along.

[jbergey22]

This looks like a good deal. Wonder if it will come to rural Minnesota prior to 2050? Anyone remember the good old days of 56k dial up?

[ISiddiqui]

Be sure to put your name/address in on their e-mail list on the site. They'll provide updates as the process moves along.

I did so! Thanks!

[Vince, Pt. II]

I'd love to get it here in San Jose, but I bet PG&E will screw it up somehow.

[albionmoonlight]

hm Raleigh is listed but not my town which is about 20 miles from both downtown Raleigh and downtown Durham.

If you click on Raleigh-Durham, they list the following areas:
Carrborro Cary Chapel Hill Durham Garner Morrisville Raleigh

[albionmoonlight]

dola:

So, if it comes, we should be good.

[albionmoonlight]

double dola:

I see you are in Wake Forest. Still, based on what MBBF said, I find it hard to believe that they would do Raleigh and not extend it to WF.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

double dola:

I see you are in Wake Forest. Still, based on what MBBF said, I find it hard to believe that they would do Raleigh and not extend it to WF.

I do know that they tried to focus on school districts and university areas first when they implemented. I would be shocked if they didn't hit all those major universities if they do decide to do the Raleigh-Durham area. They were getting great word-of-mouth by doing that here in KC.

[Radii]

Wake Forest University isn't in Wake Forest, sadly. The old Wake Forest Campus (the school moved in the 1950s) is now a southern baptist seminary school. Ah well, we shall see what happens if it comes here!

[kcchief19]

To echo what MBBF, the Google game plan from KC is to cut deals with the most reception cities with the best incentives and most favorable regulations. In KC, the cut deals with the electric companies to get cheaper pole attachments, access to restricted spaces & joint trenches and dark fiber if available. I think they generally found the deals with the utility companies were not that valuable, so I don't think they will be as constrained by utility footprints.

Google announced they were coming to KC three years ago, and today only a fraction of households are connected. They should jump up pretty quickly since they are getting ready to light up a couple of huge areas. But they are still years from complete buildout. And some very key suburbs haven't signed on yet because they won't agree to Google's terms.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Sign up for Google Fiber is tomorrow! Excited to get this party started!!!!

[kcchief19]

Yep. Will be signing up here. Google contractors have been in our neighborhood the last couple of weeks running fiber underground. Kind of going slow. They haven't started down our street yet. But they haven't knocked out our gas, electricity, water or Internet yet, so I have that going for me.

[cartman]

The Longhorn Network is on Channel 230 for Google Fiber in Kansas City.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

The Longhorn Network is on Channel 230 for Google Fiber in Kansas City.

As odd as it sounds, that's actually good news. That means that the SEC Network being added is a near shoe-in since they already have a good relationship with ESPN. That's the only concern I really have about the channel lineup. I want to watch the Tigers. But the rumor is that it will happen.

[kcchief19]

Signed up just after the site went live this afternoon. Got an email that our "fiberhood" will qualify for service if 198 other customers in my fiberhood sign up. There are 500 homes in my neighborhood, plus our Google fiberhood includes half the adjoining subdivision and some large acreage sites. I'm guessing our fiberhood is about 800 homes, so they must want about 25% of a neighborhood to start hook ups.

Google indicated in the signup process their goal is to have all new connections done by the end of the year. They haven't made a deadline yet so I'm not holding my breath. We'll see. But the process is under way!

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Woohoo!!!

https://fiber.google.com/img/cities/kansascity/getinvolved/share-graphic-1.png

[Blackadar]

Wake Forest University isn't in Wake Forest, sadly. The old Wake Forest Campus (the school moved in the 1950s) is now a southern baptist seminary school. Ah well, we shall see what happens if it comes here!

Yep. RJ Reynolds tobacco bought the whole university and moved them two hours west to Winston Salem.

[cartman]

San Antonio is next up.

Google Fiber expansion moves fast, San Antonio approves construction | Ars Technica (http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/03/google-fiber-expansion-moves-fast-san-antonio-approves-construction/)

[Ragone]

Kc chief.. Which fiber hood did you end up in.. I ended
Up in quail ridge park.. Which has a lot of open acreage with few
Homes.. Not real optimistic on qualifying my area..

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Kc chief.. Which fiber hood did you end up in.. I ended
Up in quail ridge park.. Which has a lot of open acreage with few
Homes.. Not real optimistic on qualifying my area..

Qualifying is by percentage, somewhere between 5-25% of homes in your area.

Also, I did look up the initial run of fiberhoods. Roughly 91% of the first round of fiberhoods qualified for hookup. That's a pretty high percentage.

[albionmoonlight]

hm Raleigh is listed but not my town which is about 20 miles from both downtown Raleigh and downtown Durham.

FYI. No idea how much of this is real vs. wishful thinking.

Wake Forest, NC to become Triangle's first gigabit town? RST Fiber thinks so. | Wake Forest Fiber (http://www.wakeforestfiber.com/?p=1055)

[Radii]

FYI. No idea how much of this is real vs. wishful thinking.

Wake Forest, NC to become Triangle's first gigabit town? RST Fiber thinks so. | Wake Forest Fiber (http://www.wakeforestfiber.com/?p=1055)

That would be amazing, but yeah, sounds like its a bit early to be getting my hopes up.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Not surprising given that KC is Google Fiber's home base, but the SEC Network was just added to the lineup.

http://www.secdigitalnetwork.com/NEWS/tabid/473/Article/250903/google-fiber-to-carry-sec-network-for-august-14-2014-debut.aspx

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Three houses down from me. Fiber conduit going in. Shit's getting real!

https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/t1.0-9/10353131_10202035597473967_1484175653738843446_n.jpg

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Construction in the neighborhood has really boosted enrollment in a big hurry. Our fiberhood was a bit slow on enrollments. Since they start installing fiber conduit in the neighborhood, our fiberhood is suddenly enrolling 6-10 houses a day (30 days left to get 30 more households).

There's going to be some houses that are going to feel really stupid when their neighbors start talking about the speeds they're getting in their home and they forgot or decided to not enroll.

[kcchief19]

A Google subcontractor nicked a gas line about 200 yards from our house on Monday. Not aware they evacuated anyone, but the fire department and gas company were on the scene for about 12 hours fixing it. Google hitting utility lines has been pretty commonplace last year or so.

Fiber installation should be coming down my street the next few days. They are basically digging in the right away every two houses to pull cable through. Our "fiberhood" already hit its goal. Google required 200 signups in my area, and it looks like there are about 800 homes in that area. They still have a month for signups more.

[kcchief19]

Construction in the neighborhood has really boosted enrollment in a big hurry. Our fiberhood was a bit slow on enrollments. Since they start installing fiber conduit in the neighborhood, our fiberhood is suddenly enrolling 6-10 houses a day (30 days left to get 30 more households).

There's going to be some houses that are going to feel really stupid when their neighbors start talking about the speeds they're getting in their home and they forgot or decided to not enroll.
The funny thing is that even people who don't signup for fiber should benefit. If you're not competing with your neighbors for bandwidth, it should speed things up considerably. My speeds basically get throttled about 4 pm when kids start coming home from school and people get home from work.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Sounds like Time Warner and AT&T are throwing everything but the kitchen sink at customers in Google fiberhoods in our area. Offering unthrottled internet and movie channels free up to a year if you sign a long term agreement. Yeah, uhhhhh, no.

[Ragone]

hmm that looks like the Montclair neighborhood mizzou? Literally the day we qualified as a fiberhood.. they had dropped off some spools.. the next day they beginning laying the cable..

Funny story, some old man at the very beginning of the neighborhood tried to keep them from laying cable by sitting in his driveway with a shotgun. Guess police had to come and explain to him the whole first 5 feet of your property is city owned.. Pretty sure he got hauled off as well.

[Ragone]

I also upgraded my package to include their tv plan recently.. my directv agreement ends in july.. my time warner internet has been contract free for over 2 years now.. can't wait

[gstelmack]

Winston-Salem up next for AT&T Gigabit, with my area (Cary) on the list for the future. So we have AT&T and Google both working to bring Gigabit to Cary, wonder what Time Warner's response is going to be?

[sterlingice]

Funny story, some old man at the very beginning of the neighborhood tried to keep them from laying cable by sitting in his driveway with a shotgun. Guess police had to come and explain to him the whole first 5 feet of your property is city owned.. Pretty sure he got hauled off as well.

Awesome :D

"Utility easements are a socialist invention set on destroying 'murica!"

SI

[kcchief19]

Winston-Salem up next for AT&T Gigabit, with my area (Cary) on the list for the future. So we have AT&T and Google both working to bring Gigabit to Cary, wonder what Time Warner's response is going to be?
It's a good question. TWC has been standing pat with the "no one needs fiber" argument then grudgingly rolling out 100-200 mbps service.

Until the Comcast acquisition is settled, I don't think they are going to do anything dramatic. If the merger goes through, I'm not sure they will do anything other than what they are doing in KC and Texas, which is to push more contracts, bundles and deals. Comcast isn't going to worry about their image in Charlotte as much as TWC does.

If the merger doesn't go through for some reason, I think there's a chance TWC draws a line in the sand in North Carolina and decides to compete. But it will be a complete reversal of the stated company line that no one needs that much bandwidth.

[cartman]

It's a good question. TWC has been standing pat with the "no one needs fiber" argument then grudgingly rolling out 100-200 mbps service.

Until the Comcast acquisition is settled, I don't think they are going to do anything dramatic. If the merger goes through, I'm not sure they will do anything other than what they are doing in KC and Texas, which is to push more contracts, bundles and deals. Comcast isn't going to worry about their image in Charlotte as much as TWC does.

If the merger doesn't go through for some reason, I think there's a chance TWC draws a line in the sand in North Carolina and decides to compete. But it will be a complete reversal of the stated company line that no one needs that much bandwidth.

I think the guys with a lot of cable infrastructure in place are going to try and make a go of DOCSIS 3.1 (up to 10Gb/s down, 1Gb/s up) before making any big plans for implementing a fiber infrastructure.

[kcchief19]

I think the guys with a lot of cable infrastructure in place are going to try and make a go of DOCSIS 3.1 (up to 10Gb/s down, 1Gb/s up) before making any big plans for implementing a fiber infrastructure.
Theoretically. But DOCSIS 3.0 has gigabit download speeds, and the cable companies have generally only built it out to the 100-200 mbps capacity because they don't want to and can't necessarily provide the required downstream channels. It's probably five years before 3.1 is mainstream, and by that time it may even be further behind fiber.

I think it's what they plan to do, but the question is whether they can hold out that long.

[gstelmack]

We don't even have 100 Mb/s TWC here, just 50 as the max. To be fair to TWC, though, I haven't found it worth the 30% price increase ($78 - $98) to go to 50. Gigabit, though, could be fun.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

kcchief19 wins. 6 month delay.

Hello,

Thanks for signing up for Google Fiber. We’re thrilled that so many people are excited about Google Fiber and we know you’re waiting to get connected. Our goal is to bring you Fiber by the summer of 2015. We’re still working on building our network in your area and the upcoming winter weather could cause some delays. We’ll keep you updated as we have additional information about your installation.

As you’ve probably heard, Google Fiber isn’t your typical Internet installation and getting it isn’t either. Since we can’t bring you Fiber through your existing cable or phone lines, we’re busy digging trenches, climbing poles and running thousands of miles of brand new fiber optic cables.

In the next several weeks, you may continue to see our trucks and crews in your area even though we’re not quite ready to install Fiber in your home. Don’t worry, our team will still reach out to you via email or with a phone call as soon as we’re ready to set up your in-home installation appointment. We know how inconvenient it can be without the Internet, so we suggest that you have a way to access the web until Fiber is up and running in your home.

We appreciate your patience and if you have additional questions, please feel free to call us at 866-777-7550. You can also email or chat with us by visiting fiber.google.com/support

The Google Fiber team

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

NY TImes article discusses internet speeds in the U.S.

The New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/31/upshot/why-the-us-has-fallen-behind-in-internet-speed-and-affordability.html?_r=0&abt=0002&abg=0)

[Desnudo]

What's up with Mexico city?

[JPhillips]

Oh, well. If internet were any cheaper the job creators would leave the country.

American exceptionalism ftw!

[sterlingice]

Here's the money line

In Chattanooga, Lafayette and Bristol, it comes through publicly owned networks.

Yes, kids, companies can't even compete with "incompetent, bureaucratic government" when they can just buy into monopolies

SI

[nol]

What's up with Mexico city?

Even more of a monopoly. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Slim

[stevew]

Bristol VA has one of the most progressive city governments I've ever seen. In like 20 years it went from an afterthought to having a ton of retail options.

[kcchief19]

Google Fiber readies 1-Gig offering for Kansas City businesses - FierceTelecom (http://www.fiercetelecom.com/story/google-fiber-readies-1-gig-offering-kansas-city-businesses/2014-11-10)

Google is now rolling out its 1 Gig fiber services to businesses in Kansas City ... and the price is a game changer: $100 per month.

That's a dramatic price compared to comparable service from the other major ISPs in the area. A Gigabit service would normally cost at least $1,000 per month or more plus construction, which can easily be $5-10,000 or more.

What's unclear is who can get it. Google says it's for "small businesses." That tells me if you're a company with a 1,000 employees or a high-tech bandwidth hog, you may not qualify or there may be another service for you. We also don't know about reliability or redundancy. For example, I know a guy who runs his own web servers and he has TWC provide two separate feeds from two different nodes so that if one node goes down they still have service. Will Google offer that? Unknown.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Interesting read.

What France has taught me: Americans are suckers who have themselves to blame for crappy broadband | VentureBeat | Business | by Chris O'Brien (http://venturebeat.com/2014/11/12/what-france-has-taught-me-americans-are-suckers-who-have-themselves-to-blame-for-crappy-broadband/)

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Google Fiber readies 1-Gig offering for Kansas City businesses - FierceTelecom (http://www.fiercetelecom.com/story/google-fiber-readies-1-gig-offering-kansas-city-businesses/2014-11-10)

Google is now rolling out its 1 Gig fiber services to businesses in Kansas City ... and the price is a game changer: $100 per month.

That's a dramatic price compared to comparable service from the other major ISPs in the area. A Gigabit service would normally cost at least $1,000 per month or more plus construction, which can easily be $5-10,000 or more.

What's unclear is who can get it. Google says it's for "small businesses." That tells me if you're a company with a 1,000 employees or a high-tech bandwidth hog, you may not qualify or there may be another service for you. We also don't know about reliability or redundancy. For example, I know a guy who runs his own web servers and he has TWC provide two separate feeds from two different nodes so that if one node goes down they still have service. Will Google offer that? Unknown.

Here's one thing I know. It's like not worse than what we're currently getting.

FYI....my event coordinator who lives just south of 291 in our area just got Google Fiber yesterday. The installer apologized that the initial installation only yielded 650 Mbps download and 925 Mbps upload. They were going to come back today to optimize the connection.

I WANT those kinds of bad connections. She's only about a mile from my house, so it shouldn't be much longer!

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Oooooooooo!!!!! Got the connection to the outside wall today!!!!! Installer said they'd be here in 3-4 weeks to install! Merry Xmas to me!!!!!

[kcchief19]

Nice! Hopefully we won't be far behind. They ran the line to my father-in-laws house in Gladstone on Friday. He forgot we signed him up, and started to get pissed because the subcontractor was digging in his yard, and he was still pissed about the damage they did when they buried the fiber in the right-of-way in his yard. But he didn't get any details about then it would be installed.

I've been seeing the Google Fiber install Transit Connect vans in our neck of the woods a lot lately, so I assumed their were getting close to starting installs. I'm actually pretty surprised they are getting to you before the end of the year. But Shoal Creek is special. :)

[Desnudo]

Interesting read.

What France has taught me: Americans are suckers who have themselves to blame for crappy broadband | VentureBeat | Business | by Chris O'Brien (http://venturebeat.com/2014/11/12/what-france-has-taught-me-americans-are-suckers-who-have-themselves-to-blame-for-crappy-broadband/)

Mentioning France or French was identified as a top word used in popular Ted talks in a Ted talk on how to engineer a popular Ted talk.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Nice! Hopefully we won't be far behind. They ran the line to my father-in-laws house in Gladstone on Friday. He forgot we signed him up, and started to get pissed because the subcontractor was digging in his yard, and he was still pissed about the damage they did when they buried the fiber in the right-of-way in his yard. But he didn't get any details about then it would be installed.

I've been seeing the Google Fiber install Transit Connect vans in our neck of the woods a lot lately, so I assumed their were getting close to starting installs. I'm actually pretty surprised they are getting to you before the end of the year. But Shoal Creek is special. :)

They drew the ire of my wife. They knocked and my wife didn't answer the door. All of the sudden, they're mounting a box on the side of our house. Wife went out and chewed them pretty good until she figured out who they were. Kind of odd that they don't notify you that they're mounting the box outside. You'd think that would be a good idea.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

kcchief19 is getting Google Fiber right now. Should have some good feedback soon from our first FOFC Google Fiber customer.

[kcchief19]

Yeah, the subcontractors are kind of surly. The guys installing the drop at our house Sunday didn't tell us either, and made a huge racket. I went out after they left and saw they only installed the buried fiber in the yard. Same guys came back Monday and finished the drop. Now we just need the email we can schedule and installation!

The other odd thing is this was the first Google contractors I've seen in an unmarked vehicle. They usually have the company name on them and a magnet or sticker saying they are a Google contractor. I've heard a rumor they are using the company that blew up JJ's restaurant last year, so maybe it's them working under the radar.

I'm still betting you get it first, but they do have installers in the older section of our neighborhood. Would be a nice Christmas surprise!

[Ragone]

My installation is scheduled for December 30th.. Can't wait to drop that time Warner box off..

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

My installation is scheduled for December 30th.. Can't wait to drop that time Warner box off..

Nice!

I will say that the rumors that they weren't going to work through the winter haven't panned out. There's a ton of trucks out every day from what I've seen in our area.

[kcchief19]

Got the installation email tonight, getting Google Fiber on Jan. 15. Ragone will have to give a full review before then.

My contract with DirecTV runs until August, but I've done the math and I will actually be paying less to keep Direct bare bones on one TV with Google Fiber Internet and TV than I'm paying for Direct and Uverse internet now.

[Ragone]

ive heard that the tv boxes are wireless to the signal.. if that's the case would make it a TON easier on my mounting tv project to wall..

[Desnudo]

10 GBPS internet in Minneapolis

Minneapolis residents to get 10-gigabit fiber, for $400 per month | Ars Technica (http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/12/minneapolis-residents-to-get-10-gigabit-fiber-for-400-per-month/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+arstechnica%2Findex+(Ars+Technica+-+All+content))

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

10 GBPS internet in Minneapolis

Minneapolis residents to get 10-gigabit fiber, for $400 per month | Ars Technica (http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/12/minneapolis-residents-to-get-10-gigabit-fiber-for-400-per-month/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+arstechnica%2Findex+(Ars+Technica+-+All+content))

That seems as useful as 4K TV's. There's nothing there that really requires that kind of speed or even can utilize it. Even the 1 GB/sec that Google is offering is borderline overload.

[Desnudo]

Do you work at Comcast?

Incorrect predictions - Wikiquote (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Incorrect_predictions)

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Do you work at Comcast?

Incorrect predictions - Wikiquote (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Incorrect_predictions)

I've been pretty clear where I work.

As I stated, it's just not needed right now. Only real use even for the 1GB/sec right now is the number of devices in some homes. I could get my internet degraded by 90% by TV/streaming/etc. and still land 100MB/sec at that rate.

The good part about these pockets of 1GB+ internet is that it's rattling the big providers to the point where they're going to have to do a major overhaul of their infrastructure in a lot of metro areas in the very near future to remain relevant in TV/internet. That's what people should be happy about.

[Desnudo]

Technology is rarely recognized as necessary at the time it becomes available.

[kcchief19]

I remember famously saying about 10 years ago that I couldn't imagine smart phones taking off because we would never have wireless speeds that would make them practical. So I'm open to the ideas.

And I worked for a company that had as a talking point that there was no need for home users to have a gigabit of service. I rolled my eyes at that one.

That said, my complaint right now is that no one is working on applications that make a gigabit practical. A bunch of hipsters in KC trying to suck up to Google come up with a gigabit project to develop 100 ideas for using a gig, and almost all of them had nothing to do with needing a gig but rather expanding storage and infrastructure. You can teach classes online, conduct telemedicine and stream high school sports now. The challenge isn't speed but providing cameras, servers and equipment.

I'm assuming at this point development will occur when we reach a critical mass of subscribers. Right now it's not practical to develop gigabit applications because they aren't enough customers and you're still limited by the pipes in between. Just because I have a gig doesn't mean Netflix is going to stream video at 40 mbps.

At this point a gigabit for me means everybody in my house can be online at the same time without buffering and suffering from pokey download speeds. It will decrease the complaining from Mrs. kcchief19 by 98%.

[kcchief19]

ive heard that the tv boxes are wireless to the signal.. if that's the case would make it a TON easier on my mounting tv project to wall..
Yeah, I think that's one of the ways Google is trying to keep installation costs low and less complicated. Their ideal install is to put the server box in your basement and connect your TV boxes, computers and mobile devices wirelessly. You can connect with cat 5 or 6 wiring, but I don't think they will run that cable for you to all of your TVs. You'll have to confirm for us. :)

I do have a concern about the TV offering. When I have been in the Google Fiber demo space, local channels look like hell. When I asked about it, they said it was because some shows are in HD and some SD, but I know for a fact the show that was on was broadcast in HD. It looked like an SD signal though.

[stevew]

Got the installation email tonight, getting Google Fiber on Jan. 15. Ragone will have to give a full review before then.

My contract with DirecTV runs until August, but I've done the math and I will actually be paying less to keep Direct bare bones on one TV with Google Fiber Internet and TV than I'm paying for Direct and Uverse internet now.

You can just buy it out for like $160($20/month).

Also possible you might get them to cut you a break on cancellation fee.

[kcchief19]

You can just buy it out for like $160($20/month).

Also possible you might get them to cut you a break on cancellation fee.
Ah, that's good to know. My initial math was that I could cut everything back to bare bones for $50 a month, which would come out to $400 to finish my contract. I may still do that just so I can still have everything on our DVR a bit longer and a some flexibility. But I didn't know the buyout or cancellation were negotiable. Thanks!

[stevew]

How to get your cancellation fees back from DirecTV – Snappy Living (http://snappyliving.com/how-to-get-your-cancellation-fees-back-from-directv/)

[SteveMax58]

That said, my complaint right now is that no one is working on applications that make a gigabit practical. A bunch of hipsters in KC trying to suck up to Google come up with a gigabit project to develop 100 ideas for using a gig, and almost all of them had nothing to do with needing a gig but rather expanding storage and infrastructure. You can teach classes online, conduct telemedicine and stream high school sports now. The challenge isn't speed but providing cameras, servers and equipment.

Agree with this and your other points but keep in mind that even Google Fiber is oversubscribing your 1G bandwidth. So while you have dedicated 1G to Google's first hop facility, you do not have a dedicated 1G to the internet. This is still something thats a few years away even if the applications are there (though I do see the Occulus VR type of technologies pushing that possibile need sooner & sooner...just not certain what "soon" really is).

On an individual test, you would (should) get 1G simply because everybody else isn't using but a drop in the bucket of their 1G as well. But if everybody in a fiberhood actually had an application requiring (near) 1G and tried using it simultaneously, they would all experience the same issues every other operator would experience, whether they were proving you 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, or 1 Gbps. Core network design would never scale at 1G per subscriber (literally 100s of Gbps per edge facility, which in turn would be 10s of 100s of gbps per market...nobody scales that because you'll replace it all far sooner than the bw demand will require that level of overbuild). And the oversubscription isn't anywhere close to the 1G per subscriber number (likely in the 100 Mbps per sub at absolute best).

[kcchief19]

Agree with this and your other points but keep in mind that even Google Fiber is oversubscribing your 1G bandwidth. So while you have dedicated 1G to Google's first hop facility, you do not have a dedicated 1G to the internet. This is still something thats a few years away even if the applications are there (though I do see the Occulus VR type of technologies pushing that possibile need sooner & sooner...just not certain what "soon" really is).

On an individual test, you would (should) get 1G simply because everybody else isn't using but a drop in the bucket of their 1G as well. But if everybody in a fiberhood actually had an application requiring (near) 1G and tried using it simultaneously, they would all experience the same issues every other operator would experience, whether they were proving you 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, or 1 Gbps. Core network design would never scale at 1G per subscriber (literally 100s of Gbps per edge facility, which in turn would be 10s of 100s of gbps per market...nobody scales that because you'll replace it all far sooner than the bw demand will require that level of overbuild). And the oversubscription isn't anywhere close to the 1G per subscriber number (likely in the 100 Mbps per sub at absolute best).
You can pick almost any random speed between 100 to 1,000 Mbps and there still isn't any development of applications taking advantage of that speed. Video providers will probably be the first in the space -- 4k or uncompressed HD video would be great to see. But I've yet to see anyone develop or even propose a realistic, valuable application for fiber speeds.

I'll be interested in seeing what happens when Google Fiber reaches further build out. Everyone oversubscribes their network -- I rarely reached top speeds with TWC. My U-verse connection was great in 2008, but it blows in 2014. Too much build out and too little maintenance, it would appear. I have 18 Mbps service (top seed for my area) and 15 is about my max with 8-10 during peak hours.

It would appear that Google is capable of delivering 10 Gbps to the home, but caps that speed at 1G. And with fiber, there should be less drop off from end-of-line speed loss. I've heard that some customers in the initial build out areas where market saturation is highest typically get speeds in the 900-975 mbps. That's still ridiculously fast.

[kcchief19]

On a separate note, had the install of the in-laws "free" 5 Mpbs service today. This is the service Google provides free for seven years with a $300 install fee payable in one lump sum or 12 monthly payments of $25 for a year.

Setup was pretty smooth. Sorry I didn't take any pictures. They installed the jack along the exterior wall near the computer desk so we could hardwire the desktop. Speedtests came in right around 5 Mbps, but it seemed just as fast or faster than my 18 Mbps service at home. There seemed to be less lag with this connection.

It takes a bit of power. Both the jack and the network box need power. They don't have TV service so I can't report on that. Setting up the Internet service and installation took about 90 minutes and went pretty smooth. Setting up the wireless network was the easiest network setup ever -- you do it all online through your account.

16 days until Google Fiber comes here to my house!

[SteveMax58]

You can pick almost any random speed between 100 to 1,000 Mbps and there still isn't any development of applications taking advantage of that speed. Video providers will probably be the first in the space -- 4k or uncompressed HD video would be great to see. But I've yet to see anyone develop or even propose a realistic, valuable application for fiber speeds.

I'll be interested in seeing what happens when Google Fiber reaches further build out. Everyone oversubscribes their network -- I rarely reached top speeds with TWC. My U-verse connection was great in 2008, but it blows in 2014. Too much build out and too little maintenance, it would appear. I have 18 Mbps service (top seed for my area) and 15 is about my max with 8-10 during peak hours.

It would appear that Google is capable of delivering 10 Gbps to the home, but caps that speed at 1G. And with fiber, there should be less drop off from end-of-line speed loss. I've heard that some customers in the initial build out areas where market saturation is highest typically get speeds in the 900-975 mbps. That's still ridiculously fast.
Video providers won't be sending 100+ Mbps video services to consumers. I can get you something you would perceive as impossible to beat at 40 mbps and even that might be better than necessary as a step 1.

I think the drivers for (residential) higher bandwidth applications are remote location services such as virtual reality offices, group VR applications, holographic communication, etc. But not even all of those need 1G so hence the confusion about why consumers believe they need this. :)

Also keep in mind the difference between latency & "speed" (which to be precise, the term used for speed is really a capacity of data in a fixed timeline). I'm sure Google's 1G latency is perfectly great as well but its also not necessarily faster if the other end isn't able to support it (which is typically more limited at the server itself, if the data access speed isn't the issue).

[kcchief19]

I think the drivers for (residential) higher bandwidth applications are remote location services such as virtual reality offices, group VR applications, holographic communication, etc. But not even all of those need 1G so hence the confusion about why consumers believe they need this. :)
That's precisely what the MSOs and ISPs don't get and why Google entered the fiber space in the first place. It's about value and service.

As a consumer, I can pay $70 a month for 20-30 Mbps when I can pay $70 for 1g? Especially when I know that 20-30 Mbps isn't enough?

I get that bandwidth is the last great profit center for cable companies. I still think Google entered the fiber space to spur cable companies to up their speeds, and it's working. I'm not sold that Google is in this for the long haul, except they may have found ways to innovate the delivery process to make fiber profitable at an affordable price.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

As a consumer, I can pay $70 a month for the possibility of 20-30 Mbps when I can pay $70 for 1g? Especially when I know that 20-30 Mbps isn't enough?

Fixed.

I have paid for 'premium' speeds on 3-4 different providers. None of them have ever delivered on a consistent basis.

With Google Fiber, I can spend the same amount and get 100M/sec on a bad day. That's the difference right now until the dinosaurs start updating their networks.

[Ragone]

wired right now. I'm getting 950 mbps.. wireless is ymmv.. I gladly called direct tv and time warner today to cancel :)

I realize as more people hook in, my performace will likely drop.. but I can't imagine it would be that much

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Had some neighbors that had to password protect their Google Fiber wireless. Evidently had a lot of freeloaders in the neighborhood. :)

Ragone, I know that one of my friends found out that moving around their Google box just a little bit makes a huge difference on how well the wireless performs. Perhaps you're just using your own router rather than theirs, but thought I'd mention it.

[Ragone]

oh man, I password protected my router immediately.. I know my neighbors would freeload.. the installers even laughed when they asked me what I'd do first.. "password protect the router"

The installers I had (I had 2..) even put in two tv jacks in my basement which was currently being finished.. it took a bit of finagling on my computer to get the top end speed but its working great now..

[kcchief19]

Cool. My experience at sites that have Google Fiber is YMMV for sure. I've been at meetings at the Fiber Space a few times and I've gotten anywhere from 15 to 50 Mbps depending on the number of people there.

[kcchief19]

On another Google Fiber note ... Google Fiber’s latest FCC filing is Comcast’s nightmare come to life (https://www.yahoo.com/tech/s/google-fiber-latest-fcc-filing-comcast-nightmare-come-161549827.html)

Utility pole access has been a big issue for Google, and forcing access has been a big part of their test market strategy in KC. They delayed signing a deal with one large suburb (Overland Park) because the city wanted different terms than Google has with other cities. Google pulled out of the most affluent suburb in KC (Leawood) because the city, after heavy lobbying from AT&T, passed an ordinance requiring all cable & ISPs to bury their infrastructure rather than use pole attachments. AT&T has denied Google access to their poles, and has been buying poles in some cities to limit Google's access.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

On another Google Fiber note ... Google Fiber’s latest FCC filing is Comcast’s nightmare come to life (https://www.yahoo.com/tech/s/google-fiber-latest-fcc-filing-comcast-nightmare-come-161549827.html)

Utility pole access has been a big issue for Google, and forcing access has been a big part of their test market strategy in KC. They delayed signing a deal with one large suburb (Overland Park) because the city wanted different terms than Google has with other cities. Google pulled out of the most affluent suburb in KC (Leawood) because the city, after heavy lobbying from AT&T, passed an ordinance requiring all cable & ISPs to bury their infrastructure rather than use pole attachments. AT&T has denied Google access to their poles, and has been buying poles in some cities to limit Google's access.

It's really only a matter of time. Google Fiber isn't going away any time soon and they have loads of money to beat out any of the other broadband providers. They seem to be jumping over every hurdle put in their way.

[Ragone]

I spent more time on the phone cancelling time warner.. they wanted to offer me FREE SERVICE CALLS... gigabit internet(ha right) all for 30 bucks a month.. I realize the lady is doing her job, and all those recorded phone calls are analyzed.. but jeez.. If they just offered this stuff to begin with, instead of when you call to cancel.. maybe people would have stayed

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Scheduled for January 5th at 8:00 am. Bring it on!

I'm going to cancel my uverse by walking into the AT&T store with a bunch of boxes. If they ask why I cancelled, I'll likely say 'Google Fiber is in town. Any questions?'.

[SnowMan]

And I'm stuck on using Verizon Jetpack 4G for all my internet. #1stWorldProblems

[Ragone]

How long till one of the cable companies pulls out of town.. we had 200 people in my fiberhood sign up.. average cable/internet bill being around say.. 120 a month.. that's 24k a month lost.. from just my fiberhood

[stevew]

I spent more time on the phone cancelling time warner.. they wanted to offer me FREE SERVICE CALLS... gigabit internet(ha right) all for 30 bucks a month.. I realize the lady is doing her job, and all those recorded phone calls are analyzed.. but jeez.. If they just offered this stuff to begin with, instead of when you call to cancel.. maybe people would have stayed

Yeah they're the worst. Had a 30 minute call to cancel, then they just went ahead and cancelled all my services for fun and it took another 45 minutes to get my billing corrected.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

How long till one of the cable companies pulls out of town.. we had 200 people in my fiberhood sign up.. average cable/internet bill being around say.. 120 a month.. that's 24k a month lost.. from just my fiberhood

AT&T just opened up that big retail location in our area, mostly because they had so many UVerse customers in the area. Wouldn't be shocked to see them move back to a smaller retail location once their lease is up just for phone service purposes.

[kcchief19]

Scheduled for January 5th at 8:00 am. Bring it on!

I'm going to cancel my uverse by walking into the AT&T store with a bunch of boxes. If they ask why I cancelled, I'll likely say 'Google Fiber is in town. Any questions?'.
Unless they have changed in the last year, you can't cancel your uVerse service at the AT&T stores. You have to call to cancel, then take your boxes to FedEx or the UPS Store and they ship them for you. That's how it worked the last two times I cancelled uVerse. :)

[kcchief19]

How long till one of the cable companies pulls out of town.. we had 200 people in my fiberhood sign up.. average cable/internet bill being around say.. 120 a month.. that's 24k a month lost.. from just my fiberhood
I've heard rumors that Google is getting at least 50% market share in neighborhoods they go into. For the most part given where they have built so far, that would mean pulling from TWC, uVerse and the satellite companies primarily.

TWC/Comcast will still have decent numbers because they still serve plenty of suburbs Google hasn't touched yet.

There are too many regulatory hurdles and nightmares to clear for one of the major MSOs to pull out. The much more likely scenario is that they sell off the system to a smaller provider. I think WOW!, Cox or Charter would be interested if the price were right. But selling off is admitting defeat, and TWC/Comcast would rather lose money in KC than throw in the towel.

[kcchief19]

I spent more time on the phone cancelling time warner.. they wanted to offer me FREE SERVICE CALLS... gigabit internet(ha right) all for 30 bucks a month.. I realize the lady is doing her job, and all those recorded phone calls are analyzed.. but jeez.. If they just offered this stuff to begin with, instead of when you call to cancel.. maybe people would have stayed
I'm intrigued by that part of what she said. TWC has already upped its top residential speed in KC to 300 Mbps, but I have no idea if that is available everywhere and what the YMMV speed is.

But I have seen several signs recently that someone other than Google is running fiber to neighborhoods. I've seen some fiber installers in Liberty, which doesn't have a deal with Google, and a contractor was running fiber in the neighborhood across the street from us, which I know already has Google Fiber in it.

I believe all the big boys in town are already running fiber to the nodes, so I'm wondering if someone is running fiber to the curb, which would allow existing coax lines to deliver gigabit speeds.

[Butter]

Unless they have changed in the last year, you can't cancel your uVerse service at the AT&T stores. You have to call to cancel, then take your boxes to FedEx or the UPS Store and they ship them for you. That's how it worked the last two times I cancelled uVerse. :)

And the guy I had said make sure you keep your proof of return of the boxes because they had more than one person complain that AT&T charged them for not returning the boxes when they had definitely done it through the UPS Store.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Connected! I have four TV boxes all on HD channels. In addition, I'm currently recording six different HD shows as a test. Even with all that bandwidth going out for those various uses, I still have 650Mb/sec wired and around 240Mb/sec wireless.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

More toys. Really love the options available through the Google Fiber app. If you connect any smart phone/tablet to wifi in your house and download the app, you can watch all your channels live on that device, even if all TV's are in use. You can even do that with multiple phones at the same time. In addition, you can see on the app what shows are on all TV's and can change the channels on any box from the app.

Nice that all TV boxes can also double as Wifi boxes if you want to do so. Easy way to make guest Wifi if you have a guest bedroom.

Remotes have a pretty good delay right now, but he said that's a situation that fixes itself once the boxes finish downloading all the guide/schedule content.

[kcchief19]

The WiFi access points with the TV boxes is brilliant. Eliminates the blind spots you get with most modems and routers.

I'm increasingly pessimistic about being able to keep my DirecTV active on one TV until we're ready to dump it. I have an ethernet cable run to my office, so in theory I can have the Network Box and Storage Box there. But my house is a poorly designed split level, so running a separate coax so that I can get DirecTV to the one TV I want will be a nightmare.

I thought I saw in the Fiber Space that the Google TV Box can be installed wirelessly, and if that's true it's a perfect short-term solution. But I can't confirm that online.

[SteveMax58]

More toys. Really love the options available through the Google Fiber app. If you connect any smart phone/tablet to wifi in your house and download the app, you can watch all your channels live on that device, even if all TV's are in use. You can even do that with multiple phones at the same time. In addition, you can see on the app what shows are on all TV's and can change the channels on any box from the app.

Nice that all TV boxes can also double as Wifi boxes if you want to do so. Easy way to make guest Wifi if you have a guest bedroom.

Remotes have a pretty good delay right now, but he said that's a situation that fixes itself once the boxes finish downloading all the guide/schedule content.

The wifi thing is really cool.

So does the box run a flavor of android that you have access to add your own widgets? Or is it somewhat static in that regard?

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

The wifi thing is really cool.

So does the box run a flavor of android that you have access to add your own widgets? Or is it somewhat static in that regard?

I'm not for sure, but think the box is a relatively closed interface. I don't believe you can create or add additional tools. I do know that they're adding a lot of new things on a regular basis. The installation tech said that they usually install new firmware every couple of weeks to add new features that people are requesting. There's a forum area where you can request new features and the Google employees are pretty active on it. He showed me several features in the menus/Google Fiber app that had been added in the last week or two.

I can tell which sites have speed bottlenecks right away when accessing them. The big ones pop up lightning fast. Some of the other ones hesitate for a second before popping up.

The tech also said that any talk of a huge slowdown due to multiple recordings/TV's at same time or having all boxes with wifi on are largely overblown. He said it's very minimal at worst. He said if you have a big drop, it's usually a line issue.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Had my first recording conflict today. I never thought I'd run into conflict when you can record eight shows at a time, but I somehow hit the magic number 9 for the 7:00 hour tonight. Three of the kids shows on at the same time along with two sporting events I recorded caused the issue when paired up against our regular recordings.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

dola

Couple of side stories related to UVerse disconnect.

1. Called AT&T. Was actually relatively easy to disconnect. You just have to call them and then take the boxes to a UPS Store where UPS does all the boxing/sending. When I called AT&T, the lady asked why I was disconnecting the service. I told her Google Fiber. She said, 'Oh, I've heard about that. How is it?' I told her that the service was $120 for TV and 1GB internet. She said, 'That's a good deal! I've heard something about it, but didn't know they were installing yet.' Granted, she's a phone support person, but I'm a bit surprised at how little she knew about it.

2. Took the boxes into the UPS store. Just had to give them the boxes and my account # and they do the rest. I mentioned that it probably was a pretty good partnership to be the shipper for all UVerse boxes when they're returned. He said, 'You have no idea. Our revenue for Uverse TV box returns are up 200% at this store since Google Fiber hit this end of KC several months ago.'

[kcchief19]

Yeah, the return of AT&T boxes via UPS Store is pretty seamless. The one thing they do very well is get you to stop being a customer.

[Ragone]

When I went to return time Warner box at the metro north location.. I was also told they will likely close that location as well.. Several employees discussing driving to independence location.

Dropped off directv return at post office today.. Glad to be rid of them both.

[kcchief19]

Must be some post-merger rumors. TWC doesn't serve Independence but Comcast does. Closing the north store would be a small white flag of surrender to Google.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Don't know why this is the case, but my PS4 Remote Play on my Vita is light-years better now that I have Google Fiber in the house. I'm guessing less resistance at any level is a good thing. No noticable latency at all.

The interfaces on phone and tablets are so seamless. It's so nice to have something that works so well in your pocket in all rooms so that you never have to look for remotes in couch cushions, on bed comforters, etc. Even my father in law with his moderate dementia can figure out how to control the TV on his iPhone. When dealing with those kinds of issues, you have no idea how helpful that is for the rest of us. :D

[kcchief19]

I'm working on a more in-depth review for my website, but my initial review of Google Fiber is mixed.

At top speed with a wired connection, goes pretty well. My Mac Book will hit 600-900 Mbps wired and 180 Mbps wireless. My crappy PC is getting 90 Mbps wired.

WiFi is a completely mixed bag. I'll typically get 25-50 Mbps on most wireless devices, sometimes up to 75 Mbps on my phone.

A couple of concerning points is that I have had a handful of times when speed has just vanished and I'll get less than 1 Mbps or have huge latency issues. Sometimes this slow down will last 5-30 minutes.

The TV services is better than I expected. Picture clarity is superb, and I think I'd give an edge to Google over Direct TV. The Guide is very smooth and fast. With uVerse and DirecTV whole-home DVRs, we would have a huge lag on the secondary boxes. There are little things wrong with the UI and menu functions that should be easy fixes at some point. The TV boxes do take forever to load -- just put a stopwatch on it, and it took 39 seconds from power on before a picture appeared.

The Nexus 7 tablet they throw in free is actually not bad. Casting video from mobile devices and the tablet is incredibly fast.

Compared to the competition, it's a huge upgrade. The TV service is actually an amazing value, maybe less so if you're a big HBO/Showtime fan since the pricing for those isn't great.

I thinkSteveMax58 had a great point about how the gigabit gets split up. There could be issues degrading my speed, but I expected to be able to routinely get much faster speeds than I'm seeing. That said, I'm still typically getting 25-50 Mbps on multiple devices at the same time, which is a far sight above and beyond what I've ever had before. Obviously my speed is limited by the fact that I'm going to places not designed for gigabit speed. But it also reinforces to me the current limited market for "gigabit applications" -- it's just not practical to design any app needing speeds greater than 25-50 Mbps.

All my whining aside, when this thing is humming it hums. It's pretty cool when you're on your phone and there is no lag with images and videos whatsoever. Just wish it was more consistent.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

New cities added in the South.......

Google Fiber Blog (http://googlefiberblog.blogspot.com/2015/01/google-fiber-is-coming-to-atlanta.html)

[Radii]

New cities added in the South.......

Google Fiber Blog (http://googlefiberblog.blogspot.com/2015/01/google-fiber-is-coming-to-atlanta.html)

The Raleigh-Durham focus seems like it will initially be outside of my area (assuming the cities in the metro area listed are comprehensive, its raleigh and west to hit the actual triangle). Still, a positive step!

The previously mentioned fiber to Wake Forest initiative by a 3rd party company seems dead in the water. There was a lot of excitement about it for a short time and then they disappeared.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

The Raleigh-Durham focus seems like it will initially be outside of my area (assuming the cities in the metro area listed are comprehensive, its raleigh and west to hit the actual triangle). Still, a positive step!

The previously mentioned fiber to Wake Forest initiative by a 3rd party company seems dead in the water. There was a lot of excitement about it for a short time and then they disappeared.

They add cities as they go along. As long as you're a decent size city in the area, it'll get there.

[Radii]

https://fiber.google.com/cities/raleighdurham/home/

looking at the map w/ the markers on the header there listing raleigh, cary, durham, etc etc, Wake Forest is the closest suburb/city directly north of Raleigh, population is only 30,000 currently though. But its *right there* geographically. We'll see!

[Wolfpack]

https://fiber.google.com/cities/raleighdurham/home/

looking at the map w/ the markers on the header there listing raleigh, cary, durham, etc etc, Wake Forest is the closest suburb/city directly north of Raleigh, population is only 30,000 currently though. But its *right there* geographically. We'll see!

I guess it depends on how they define "Raleigh". Technically Raleigh runs right up to Wake Forest's doorstep through Wakefield, so I can't imagine that if they include all of Raleigh that they'd be leaving out Wake Forest for very long. As for my part of the city, given the busy corridor along Falls of Neuse, I'd be rather surprised if Google isn't seen here sooner than later. I'm intrigued by them and by the prospect of what U-Verse will do to compete since we're U-Verse customers. Because of Google's threat, AT&T is countering with their own gigabit service that they'll be introducing to the area.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Because of Google's threat, AT&T is countering with their own gigabit service that they'll be introducing to the area.

Oh, the deals definitely start coming in a hurry. UVerse will offer you everything for super cheap to stay on board. Time Warner has started a new ad campaign in our area offering 200 channels + 300 Mb internet for $90/month. It definitely increases the options from a price perspective.

[gstelmack]

I'm curious to see if Time Warner has a response. I'm sick and tired of the ads talking about 100 Mbit/S, when all we can get is 50 max.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

First shot back from the competitors.

AT&T to match Google Fiber speeds, prices in Kansas City and suburbs | The Kansas City Star The Kansas City Star (http://www.kansascity.com/news/business/technology/article10441850.html)

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Just got the new 2.0 network box installed at my house. Really increased WiFi range and strength quite a bit. Also puts the storage and network box in one box together. I was having occasional drops in signal on my WiFi that I noticed when playing online poker.

Also, one other key thing that I never had heard before, but don't ever set the TV box on top of the network box. It kills your signal.

[AnalBumCover]

Irvine CA could be next!

Irvine next on Google Fiber's high-speed Internet expansion plan - The Orange County Register (http://m.ocregister.com/articles/fiber-681915-google-city.html)

[kcchief19]

Just got the new 2.0 network box installed at my house. Really increased WiFi range and strength quite a bit. Also puts the storage and network box in one box together. I was having occasional drops in signal on my WiFi that I noticed when playing online poker.

Also, one other key thing that I never had heard before, but don't ever set the TV box on top of the network box. It kills your signal.
How did you get a new network box? Reducing the number of boxes is terrific. If you're having TV problems, with my setup you have to reboot the storage box and the network box for sure, and sometimes then the TV boxes. PITA.

The WiFi on the original network boxes is horrible. I can get better speeds connecting to the network box rather than my Linksys router, but the drops are maddening.

Don't get me wrong, GF is largely the best Internet service I've ever had. But it's not perfect.

[Ragone]

I agree with Kcchief.. i'd like a new network box as well.. wifi strength is average at best in my house..

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

How did you get a new network box? Reducing the number of boxes is terrific. If you're having TV problems, with my setup you have to reboot the storage box and the network box for sure, and sometimes then the TV boxes. PITA.

The WiFi on the original network boxes is horrible. I can get better speeds connecting to the network box rather than my Linksys router, but the drops are maddening.

Don't get me wrong, GF is largely the best Internet service I've ever had. But it's not perfect.

Just complain about wifi issues. They'll check the setup and usually replace it right away. It makes a huge difference. I don't even use my 2.4 connection anymore. Solely use the 5.0 connection anywhere in my house.

[kcchief19]

Anybody else having DVR problems? A few months ago, we started having choppy playback on recordings. We assumed it was the DVR being 90% full and cleared some space. But a few weeks ago it came back with a vengeance.

Nothing seems to solve the problem and it appears random. You might watch for two hours and have no problems. You might have problems for 5-15 minutes and then it clears. Rebooting the network box, storage box and fiber jack doesn't resolve it.

Just checked the fiber support forum and half the threads on the first page are people reporting same problem with no response from Google. Appears to be a bug of some sort.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Anybody else having DVR problems? A few months ago, we started having choppy playback on recordings. We assumed it was the DVR being 90% full and cleared some space. But a few weeks ago it came back with a vengeance.

Nothing seems to solve the problem and it appears random. You might watch for two hours and have no problems. You might have problems for 5-15 minutes and then it clears. Rebooting the network box, storage box and fiber jack doesn't resolve it.

Just checked the fiber support forum and half the threads on the first page are people reporting same problem with no response from Google. Appears to be a bug of some sort.

I had that problem until I upgraded to the new box. Combines the network and storage box into one. Haven't had the problem since. If you call support, they'll upgrade you pretty quickly once you report your symptoms.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Excited to have this available as part of the Google Fiber service. I'll use GoogleCast a lot.

http://googlefiberblog.blogspot.com/2016/06/bringing-google-cast-to-fiber-tv-new.html

[Kodos]

Why Slow Networks Really Cost More Than Fiber | Electronic Frontier Foundation (https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/06/why-slow-networks-really-cost-more-fiber)

Article on why it's cheaper in the long run (10 years) to install fiber networks everywhere rather than upgrade cable and FiOS.

[albionmoonlight]

Finally available for my address.

I've been looking forward to it for so long that it just now occurs to me to make sure it is any good before I get it installed.

Reliable? Awesome? Regrets?

Any thoughts are welcome

[ISiddiqui]

Well I don't have Google Fiber, but my apartment complex got AT&T Fiber because AT&T got scared in Atlanta :D. So I get 1 gig speed for $70 a month. It's pretty nice (the gig speed is the only one with data caps, which makes it far more valuable than 300 GB a month for $50/$60 or whatever it is).

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Just saw this pop up. I've been added to a test group for the new 2 GB service on Google Fiber. Hasn't started yet, but I'm interested to see what kind of speeds it delivers.

[ISiddiqui]

Just make sure for your hardwired stuff that you have Cat 6 Ethernet cords.

[kcchief19]

Just saw this pop up. I've been added to a test group for the new 2 GB service on Google Fiber. Hasn't started yet, but I'm interested to see what kind of speeds it delivers.

Interesting development. Don’t know about you, but I’ve never really achieved full Gigabit service. It’s just like any other Internet service in that how far you are downstream and the traffic of numbers affect your speed.

I could get 800mbps wired when first installed. Now it’s between 450 to 600. That’s nothing to sneeze at, and it gets the job done.

I rebuilt our network last week to improve streaming to devices through the house. I moved the Google Fiber modem to the basement near the fiber jack, and left our Linksys Gigabit router upstairs. I can now get 70mbps on our crappy Insignia TV, which has solved problems with Hulu TV especially. I’m getting 153 down on my iPhone right now.

One tip to avoid mistake I made. We dropped TV since it was getting too pricey — Google won’t let you sign up for TV service anymore. We owned two of the TV boxes from leasing fees, but I returned them anyway because didn’t think I had any need for them. When rebuilding my network, I realized I could have kept them as wired access points around the house or separate WiFi/guest access. Wish I had kept them now.

[ISiddiqui]

Interesting development. Don’t know about you, but I’ve never really achieved full Gigabit service. It’s just like any other Internet service in that how far you are downstream and the traffic of numbers affect your speed.

I could get 800mbps wired when first installed. Now it’s between 450 to 600. That’s nothing to sneeze at, and it gets the job done.

Fascinating. With AT&T Fiber, it's always been around 950 up and down. And that's not just using the AT&T app (which has incentive to lie), but Speedtest on my hardwired AppleTV.

(just tested - 999 down and 912 up)

[GrantDawg]

I just got the gig plan from Comcast. I am hitting 700-800.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Interesting development. Don’t know about you, but I’ve never really achieved full Gigabit service. It’s just like any other Internet service in that how far you are downstream and the traffic of numbers affect your speed.

I could get 800mbps wired when first installed. Now it’s between 450 to 600. That’s nothing to sneeze at, and it gets the job done.

I rebuilt our network last week to improve streaming to devices through the house. I moved the Google Fiber modem to the basement near the fiber jack, and left our Linksys Gigabit router upstairs. I can now get 70mbps on our crappy Insignia TV, which has solved problems with Hulu TV especially. I’m getting 153 down on my iPhone right now.

One tip to avoid mistake I made. We dropped TV since it was getting too pricey — Google won’t let you sign up for TV service anymore. We owned two of the TV boxes from leasing fees, but I returned them anyway because didn’t think I had any need for them. When rebuilding my network, I realized I could have kept them as wired access points around the house or separate WiFi/guest access. Wish I had kept them now.

Yeah, it's never crazy speeds, though my wife still gets around 850-900 wired. I have a hard time complaining because their network has been so reliable. It just never goes out. I suppose that's because it's all below ground. I kept the TV service. As you mentioned, the boxes alone help with wireless and wired service around the house.

[albionmoonlight]

We signed up for it. They were going to come on Tuesday to hook it up.

They came by yesterday to lay the cables, and they ended up cutting our AT&T cable.

I pointed this out to them, and they pointed out that they aren't authorized to fix AT&T's lines.

So AT&T came out to fix the line, and the guy went above and beyond in getting it to work.

So we canceled the Google fiber and are sticking with AT&T.