Travel Technology - Google Fiber

For home, not travel, but heck, this looks disruptive. Kansas City here it comes!

Google debuts crazy-fast web service in Kansas City for $70/month - venturebeat.com (http://venturebeat.com/2012/07/26/google-fiber-launch-kansas-city/)

Google unveils pricing, rollout strategy for high-speed Internet service - KCStar (http://www.kansascity.com/2012/07/26/3724345/google-set-to-announce-plans-on.html)

How Google Fiber Will Work - Geek.com (http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/how-google-fiber-will-work-20120726/)

Love the free broadband option so you can try it out or have a backup line into the house

Gigabit internet – $70/month
For the very reasonable price of $70 a month Google is offering up 1Gbps internet, along with the network box and 1TB of cloud storage. Basically this is the no-TV option.

The $300 installation fee will be waived with a one-year agreement.

Broadband internet – Free (for up to 7 years)
Not everyone can afford gigabit internet, but Google thinks everyone should have broadband. In order to get people up to speed they are offering a free 5Mbps down/1Mbps up internet for up to 7 years. Subscribers will just need to pay for installation, or $25 a month for the first year ($300).

Drool.

Though, to be fair, I'm quite happy with my 25 Mb/s down/2 up service.

ready to sign up if it gets to my area....

Soarer

I'm happy to see that they have a TV solution. Lets hope they can find a way to make the TV part available to anyone with a broadband connection. Its about time we have a real TV over IP option that is not conditional on where you live / who your provider is.

A natural approach would be to leverage their distribution deals needed for this service and their existing Google TV device options... THAT would entice me to purchase a Google TV-enabled device.

This almost makes me want to move to KC.

No ESPN on TV?

I really wish they picked my town for this ><

Meh. Google does not have the peering clout to provide true dedicated high speeds. This is like saying the diner A is better than diner B because diner A uses plates that are 12" bigger than diner B. It is what is on the plates that matter and google has very little to put on the plate -- right now.

The economics of Google Fiber and what it means for US broadband - gigaom.com (http://gigaom.com/2012/07/26/the-economics-of-google-fiber-and-what-it-means-for-u-s-broadband/)

Google’s fiber-to-the-home network may look like a loss leader for the search engine company, but its executive teams says it’s profitable. Here are the three ways Google has managed to cut the costs of building out a network and beat ISPs at their own game.

wow...gigabit internet?!? We pay that much for 1 MB/s down, 512k/s up

Meh. Google does not have the peering clout to provide true dedicated high speeds. This is like saying the diner A is better than diner B because diner A uses plates that are 12" bigger than diner B. It is what is on the plates that matter and google has very little to put on the plate -- right now.

Hmm - I would strongly disagree with this statement. The majority of traffic on their peers is outbound from Google to a huge number of ISPs but the traffic can go the other way too. Who do you not think they have good enough peering with?

Good to see the ole US of A finally getting speeds that other countries have enjoyed for a while... Too bad it will probably be half a decade before we see these speeds on a wide scale.

A friend of mine has 1 GBit in Sweden for ~$20/month (FTTB). I pay $79 and I only get 30/5Mbit... I guess the only benefit is that I don't live in a socialist country (at least not yet).

Some argue ISP monopolization is why US broadband is second-rate. A different form of socialism?

Fun stuff.....

Ask the First Guy With Google’s Blazing 1000Mbit/s Internet Connection How It Works - Gizmodo (http://gizmodo.com/google-fiber/)

CNET

After years in the making, Google announced today that it has started connecting people in Kansas City, Kan., to its ultra high-speed fiber-to-the-home Internet service. Acting as guinea pigs of sorts, these locals will be the first people in the world who get to test out Google's new service and decide whether it lives up to the hype.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57549436-93/google-inaugurates-its-super-high-speed-internet-service/

This is amazing. Australia is way behind the 8 ball in terms of broadband. They are now rolling out a national fibre network which will have speeds of 100mbit. At least better than the 10mbit most people have as a max.

I doubt that Google will expand much beyond a few test cities. I think they are using this as a way to build a case for the government to step in and pressure the telcos to invest more in building out cheaper broadband. The US is ranked 15th or 16th in the world when it comes to speed, penetration, etc...

http://www.oecd.org/sti/broadbandandtelecom/broadbandportal-pressrelease-dec2011.htm

If GOOG can get the governement to step in and push the telcos/cable providers to charge less and push fiber closer to the user, then they can just piggyback their services on top of this infrastructure for free like that have been doing for years...

The build out is going to take over a year to hit all of the places in the initial offering. I know my friend's place isn't going to get hooked up until fall....2013. I'm a suburb way out in the fringes and they aren't even going to rally us until next year some time which means hook ups probably in 2015 I bet. I think the slow install is what's going to do this program in.

That said, I have visited the Fiber Space and jumped on their network. It's fast but it doesn't feel like I'm being blown away like I thought I would be. They say that's a limit of current devices. I suppose that could be but I can't get rid of that little thought in the back of my head that people aren't going to notice too much. It doesn't help that they tell you when you're there that you have to use a speed test especially made for them and not the regular one....and you still don't see anywhere near the full potential of the network.

Still, it's cheaper and better than the options we have in KC so far.

I think there is probably never a case where someone will be able to fully utilize their 1G pipe. There is still a bottleneck at the edge of the network and in the metro. So unless two guys are sitting on the same PON and passing gigabit traffic back and forth, I think the user will only see a fraction of the bandwidth. So it's like building a 4 lane on ramp that merges into a single lane 2 way highway.

From PC Magazine

In other news, Google said it will pick up the pace on Google Fiber installations early next year. The next "fiberhoods" to receive the Google Fiber hookup in the Kansas City area will be Piper Schools, Delaware Ridge, Painted Hills, Open Door, and Arrowhead. The company also expanded the boundaries in those areas so that more people can sign up for Google Fiber.