12-19-2014, 11:06 AM | #151 | |
General Manager
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Kansas City, MO
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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. |
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12-23-2014, 01:18 AM | #152 |
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Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Kansas City, MO
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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. |
12-26-2014, 09:12 PM | #153 |
Pro Rookie
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Kansas City, Mo
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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..
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12-27-2014, 10:58 AM | #154 |
Coordinator
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Here and There
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10 GBPS internet in Minneapolis
Minneapolis residents to get 10-gigabit fiber, for $400 per month | Ars Technica) |
12-27-2014, 09:42 PM | #155 | |
General Manager
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Kansas City, MO
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Quote:
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. |
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12-28-2014, 10:31 AM | #156 |
Coordinator
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12-28-2014, 11:19 AM | #157 | |
General Manager
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Kansas City, MO
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Quote:
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. |
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12-28-2014, 11:56 AM | #158 |
Coordinator
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Here and There
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Technology is rarely recognized as necessary at the time it becomes available.
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12-29-2014, 12:22 AM | #159 |
Pro Starter
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Kansas City, MO
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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%. |
12-29-2014, 12:30 AM | #160 | |
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Join Date: Oct 2000
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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. |
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12-29-2014, 12:31 AM | #161 | |
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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. |
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12-29-2014, 12:49 AM | #162 |
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Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Kansas City, MO
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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!
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12-29-2014, 01:38 AM | #163 |
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12-30-2014, 01:45 PM | #164 | |
College Starter
Join Date: Dec 2006
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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). |
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12-30-2014, 07:06 PM | #165 | |
Pro Starter
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Kansas City, MO
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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. |
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12-30-2014, 07:14 PM | #166 |
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Location: Kansas City, MO
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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! |
12-30-2014, 07:50 PM | #167 | |
College Starter
Join Date: Dec 2006
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Quote:
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). |
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12-31-2014, 09:03 AM | #168 | |
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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. |
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12-31-2014, 02:48 PM | #169 | |
General Manager
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Kansas City, MO
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Quote:
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. |
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01-01-2015, 12:59 AM | #170 |
Pro Rookie
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Kansas City, Mo
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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 |
01-01-2015, 09:24 AM | #171 |
General Manager
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Kansas City, MO
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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. |
01-01-2015, 01:13 PM | #172 |
Pro Rookie
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Kansas City, Mo
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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.. |
01-01-2015, 08:39 PM | #173 |
Pro Starter
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Kansas City, MO
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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.
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01-01-2015, 08:54 PM | #174 |
Pro Starter
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Kansas City, MO
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On another Google Fiber note ... Google Fiber’s latest FCC filing is Comcast’s nightmare come to life
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. |
01-02-2015, 09:08 AM | #175 | |
General Manager
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Kansas City, MO
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Quote:
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. |
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01-02-2015, 01:27 PM | #176 |
Pro Rookie
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Kansas City, Mo
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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
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01-02-2015, 03:43 PM | #177 |
General Manager
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Kansas City, MO
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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?'. |
01-02-2015, 05:09 PM | #178 |
High School Varsity
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Georgia via Alaska via Washington
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And I'm stuck on using Verizon Jetpack 4G for all my internet. #1stWorldProblems
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01-03-2015, 01:16 AM | #179 |
Pro Rookie
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Kansas City, Mo
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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
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01-03-2015, 01:32 AM | #180 | |
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: the yo'
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Quote:
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. |
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01-03-2015, 11:25 AM | #181 | |
General Manager
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Kansas City, MO
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Quote:
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. |
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01-05-2015, 12:05 AM | #182 |
Pro Starter
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Kansas City, MO
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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.
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01-05-2015, 12:13 AM | #183 | |
Pro Starter
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Kansas City, MO
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Quote:
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. |
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01-05-2015, 12:22 AM | #184 | |
Pro Starter
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Kansas City, MO
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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. |
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01-05-2015, 09:20 AM | #185 | |
Coordinator
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Dayton, OH
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Quote:
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.
__________________
My listening habits |
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01-05-2015, 11:45 AM | #186 |
General Manager
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Kansas City, MO
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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.
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01-05-2015, 12:59 PM | #187 |
General Manager
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Kansas City, MO
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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. |
01-05-2015, 02:25 PM | #188 |
Pro Starter
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Kansas City, MO
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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. |
01-05-2015, 06:07 PM | #189 | |
College Starter
Join Date: Dec 2006
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Quote:
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? |
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01-05-2015, 07:20 PM | #190 | |
General Manager
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Kansas City, MO
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Quote:
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. |
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01-08-2015, 11:40 PM | #191 |
General Manager
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Kansas City, MO
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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.
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01-09-2015, 04:49 PM | #192 |
General Manager
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Kansas City, MO
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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.' |
01-09-2015, 05:47 PM | #193 |
Pro Starter
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Kansas City, MO
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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.
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01-09-2015, 08:15 PM | #194 |
Pro Rookie
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Kansas City, Mo
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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. |
01-09-2015, 09:04 PM | #195 |
Pro Starter
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Kansas City, MO
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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.
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01-11-2015, 10:32 AM | #196 |
General Manager
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Kansas City, MO
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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. |
01-17-2015, 11:57 PM | #197 |
Pro Starter
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Kansas City, MO
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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. Last edited by kcchief19 : 01-18-2015 at 12:00 AM. |
01-28-2015, 07:02 PM | #198 |
General Manager
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Kansas City, MO
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Last edited by Mizzou B-ball fan : 01-28-2015 at 07:03 PM. |
01-28-2015, 08:37 PM | #199 | |
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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Quote:
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. |
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01-28-2015, 09:07 PM | #200 | |
General Manager
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Kansas City, MO
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Quote:
They add cities as they go along. As long as you're a decent size city in the area, it'll get there. |
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