Google Fiber Confirmed Coming to Nashville

[JayC]

I think the point Google is trying to make is the cable and telephone companies are ripping us off left and right...  if Google can provide 1Gbps to homes and businesses for less than $100 a month, then why is Comcast charging $200 a month for 1/10th the speed?

 

Comcast keeps coming by my businesses asking us to sign long term contracts to lock us in, and I keep telling them to pound sand, I'm personally going to move $70k+ a year away from them as soon as Google fiber gets here, and cut my cost in the process.  Screw Comcast.

 

Gigabit speed sounds great...in theory.  But anything on the internet that isn't within your local network is a two way process.  You may be paying for a gigabit, but the sites your streaming or downloading from can only get that data to you as fast as their upload speed allows.  They may or may not have comparable service.

 

I have a 25Mbps pipe for my needs, and really, it's more than enough.  I only have that much so I can run multiple devices at a time, and someday I might get a PS4 so I can play my buddies across the country in Madden.  I can see where people with a full household would need more, but a gigabit? 

 

I'm on-board with the 'Eff Comcast, et. al' bandwagon no matter the topic at hand, however.  :up:

 

[DMark]

Eric Schmidt "Executive Chairman at Google" was Obama's Campaign Adviser and spends a lot of time in the White House. Eric Schmidt is almost solely responsible for the $25 million in campaign donations that Obama received from the telecommunications industry for his 2011 campaign. The Comcast CEO is just trying to play catch up.
 

 

Heck for that kind of money...., BHO had better be the golf caddy for Google!  :rofl:  

[btq96r]

I think the point Google is trying to make is the cable and telephone companies are ripping us off left and right...  if Google can provide 1Gbps to homes and businesses for less than $100 a month, then why is Comcast charging $200 a month for 1/10th the speed?

 

Comcast keeps coming by my businesses asking us to sign long term contracts to lock us in, and I keep telling them to pound sand, I'm personally going to move $70k+ a year away from them as soon as Google fiber gets here, and cut my cost in the process.  Screw Comcast.

 

I doubt you'll find any love for Comcast, or any of the other cable empires anywhere, certainly none from me.  For your business, Google fiber can be a benefit for you.  But for the average home, the only difference will be the cost, and even that will creep up sooner or later. 

 

I really think the biggest reason Google is doing this is to have full time access to learn people's internet usage.  The profits from monthly service are a nice bonus, but having the ability to pull data and analyze entire cities worth of web traffic will take their advertising sales into a new age.  I'm not naive enough to think they are doing this help us escape Comcast on principle alone.  There is a definite benefit for them in the process.

[RC3]

While that is true, holy carps! 1 gig of download? So worth it.

[cardia10]

Again, 1'gig sounds awesome until you have to pay for the hardware upgrades to actually use it. It is nice to say I get a gig, but there is a reason that none of the call centers in Chattanooga use a full gig and they move tons of data daily. Volkswagen doesn't even use a gig within its supplier network. It comes in very handy processing medical scans and the transfer of those or other huge density files. It is nice to say lots of new people have signed up but if you went to everyone's home and tested up and down speeds, their equipment could barely handle 1/4 of what's available. Granted, that is still 10x what Charter and Comcast offer at lower tier pricing.

[Sam1]

Doubt it, Google has more cash than the US treasury and intends to make high speed internet commonplace no matter the cost. Every market they have entered with google fiber has had cost per Mb reductions across the board regardless of the ISP. Comcast is too busy trying to keep from being reclassified as a title II utility, that happens and comcast may as well roll out a welcome mat nationwide for google fiber and municipal broadband.

 

Yep!  they're launching what was it like 175 satellites to provide internet across the globe.  Google is on a mission to make sure every soda pop can in the world can connect to the internet

[Metalhead]

It's not for everybody certainly. If you are cool with the plan you have now, that's fine. Those of us with the gear and gumption to use it however, it's well worth the cost.

 

Even outside of that, Google coming to town and offering affordable 1 gig service will force Comcast to play ball in the area where they previously had a monopoly. Either by dropping rates or offering better plans. They will have to. That benefits you guys who don't want to switch. If they don't they will start losing people as streaming services (that Comcast hates, btw. Comcast actively throttles streaming like Netflix just because they can) become more and more the norm. This isn't even to mention higher quality video streaming that will become the norm as time goes on.

[Dustbuster]

if i could get basic channels w 1 gig for under 100 per mo  id be happy. The butt monster confusing crap they have is annoying, glad google is keeping everyone a reality check, especially the ones making billions off of 50 yr old copper cable.only sad thing is luring the masses in makes monitoring easy. I wondered why google is building a "level 7" type facility in the middle of no where oklahoma....

[Sam1]

Again, 1'gig sounds awesome until you have to pay for the hardware upgrades to actually use it. It is nice to say I get a gig, but there is a reason that none of the call centers in Chattanooga use a full gig and they move tons of data daily. Volkswagen doesn't even use a gig within its supplier network. It comes in very handy processing medical scans and the transfer of those or other huge density files. It is nice to say lots of new people have signed up but if you went to everyone's home and tested up and down speeds, their equipment could barely handle 1/4 of what's available. Granted, that is still 10x what Charter and Comcast offer at lower tier pricing.

 

The congestion issue is common with any technology though, it's why AT&T hardly ever meets their advertised speeds and why Comcast usually beats their advertised speeds by a good amount.  There will never be a time when 100% of subscribers are utilizing maximum capacity.

 

Fiber also has the lowest latency (obviously) and when you're talking about going from an average of 25ms latency (cable) on 50,000 live connections down to 2ms latency (fiber), you've just eliminated a total of 19 minutes of consumption per second at the backbone.  Theoretically, they could oversell at astronomical ratios as compared to cable/dsl companies can and still keep their network at 100% advertised speed for 40-50% of subscribers which is quadruple what the current average is.

 

I love me some fiber!  But unfortunately also understand that ours will be the last house in TN to get it.

[2.ooohhh]

Again, 1'gig sounds awesome until you have to pay for the hardware upgrades to actually use it. It is nice to say I get a gig, but there is a reason that none of the call centers in Chattanooga use a full gig and they move tons of data daily. Volkswagen doesn't even use a gig within its supplier network. It comes in very handy processing medical scans and the transfer of those or other huge density files. It is nice to say lots of new people have signed up but if you went to everyone's home and tested up and down speeds, their equipment could barely handle 1/4 of what's available. Granted, that is still 10x what Charter and Comcast offer at lower tier pricing.

It's not that much cash to upgrade a home for gigabit especially now, I've been running a gigabit network end to end inside our house for around 5 years now streaming blue ray rips to all our ever TVs since we cut the cord. Gigabit fiber means I'll be able to get that level performance from my (already bought and paid for with savings from cord cutting) server anywhere else that has gigabit fiber that I go rather than munching CPU cycles to transcode and compress the files to fit through a measly 3mbps pipe. Residential internet in Nashville is garbage currently, b/c you hit the bandwidth cap well before you can really make use of the speed, on business class I've gotten rid of the cap but only get 12mpbs guaranteed down for $70 a month. Even at that speed I still transfer over 1tb a month of data across my internet connection.

[ProfEngr]

It's not that much cash to upgrade a home for gigabit especially now, I've been running a gigabit network end to end inside our house for around 5 years now streaming blue ray rips to all our ever TVs since we cut the cord. Gigabit fiber means I'll be able to get that level performance from my (already bought and paid for with savings from cord cutting) server anywhere else that has gigabit fiber that I go rather than munching CPU cycles to transcode and compress the files to fit through a measly 3mbps pipe. Residential internet in Nashville is garbage currently, b/c you hit the bandwidth cap well before you can really make use of the speed, on business class I've gotten rid of the cap but only get 12mpbs guaranteed down for $70 a month. Even at that speed I still transfer over 1tb a month of data across my internet connection.

You can answer in PM so as not to hijack the thread, but what do you use for your home media server?

[JayC]

Why on earth would the price go up?  You know bandwidth prices have been and are falling at a pretty regular rate?  The fiber is a fixed capital cost that should last for the better part of 30 to 40 years, and as we figure out new ways to increase the number of 1Gbps signals across a single fiber pair the cost on that is going down as well.

 

That is the trick Comcast and AT&T have been playing on all of us for years...  bandwidth keeps getting cheaper, the last mile of service (the expensive part of their infrastructure) was paid off 10+ years ago, and they keep raising prices...  on what?  you'll notice their profit margins on these services keep getting higher and higher.

 

For the record, Google isn't going to record what you do on the Internet, because that would be a violation of the Communications Act of 1996, service providers are only allowed to monitor traffic for network management, and isn't allowed to retain any of that data for purposes other than network management....  

 

Here is a little secret, they don't need to be your ISP to monitor everything you do on the Internet, they already monitor the VAST majority of websites you visit including this one...  

 

They have no need to get into the ISP business, except for two reasons...

 

1. Faster Internet means more use of the Internet, watching of more youtube videos, downloading of more Google play movies, viewing of more websites running Google Adwords, and more searches on Google's search engine...   This is the same reason they're looking at world wide Internet via balloons, and satellites because that means more customers for them.  Their goal is to force US cable and telephone companies into upgrading their infrastructure to faster Internet speeds for fear of loosing the monopoly or doupoly.

 

2. Net neutrality, they are worried companies like Comcast and AT&T will try and charge them lots of money to access their customers, creating 'fast lanes' of services and messing up the Internet which is very profitable for Google today...  

 

So this is Google's shot across the bow of Comcast and AT&T, it's no mistake why Nashville was on the list...  it's one of the most profitable markets for Comcast, it's meant to scare Comcast into behaving better on net neutrality and improve their network...  You do know the Nashville market is only 1 of 2 Comcast markets in the country to have a data cap right?

 

I'm a lot less worried about Google tomorrow than I am about Comcast today.

 

I doubt you'll find any love for Comcast, or any of the other cable empires anywhere, certainly none from me.  For your business, Google fiber can be a benefit for you.  But for the average home, the only difference will be the cost, and even that will creep up sooner or later. 

 

I really think the biggest reason Google is doing this is to have full time access to learn people's internet usage.  The profits from monthly service are a nice bonus, but having the ability to pull data and analyze entire cities worth of web traffic will take their advertising sales into a new age.  I'm not naive enough to think they are doing this help us escape Comcast on principle alone.  There is a definite benefit for them in the process.

 

[JayC]

Supporting 1Gbps is easy to do...   1 Gbps switches are under $100, and routers which can handle 1Gbps are also less than $100...  and both can be found on ebay for a lot less...

 

If you care enough about speed to worry about getting full 1Gbps, then you should have no problems what so ever getting 1Gbps...  crap 40Gbps isn't that expensive, and can be had on Ebay for less than $1k

 

Again, 1'gig sounds awesome until you have to pay for the hardware upgrades to actually use it. It is nice to say I get a gig, but there is a reason that none of the call centers in Chattanooga use a full gig and they move tons of data daily. Volkswagen doesn't even use a gig within its supplier network. It comes in very handy processing medical scans and the transfer of those or other huge density files. It is nice to say lots of new people have signed up but if you went to everyone's home and tested up and down speeds, their equipment could barely handle 1/4 of what's available. Granted, that is still 10x what Charter and Comcast offer at lower tier pricing.

 

[Guest drv2fst]

Speed is only 1 part of the equation.  What about data caps?  AT&T and Comcast cap you at 250GB / month and charge extra for data above that.  Does Google have a monthly cap?

[2.ooohhh]

Speed is only 1 part of the equation.  What about data caps?  AT&T and Comcast cap you at 250GB / month and charge extra for data above that.  Does Google have a monthly cap?

Nope, none whatsoever.

[tennesseetiger]

Speed is only 1 part of the equation.  What about data caps?  AT&T and Comcast cap you at 250GB / month and charge extra for data above that.  Does Google have a monthly cap?

Nope! Cant wait to see what Comcast, AT&T, Charter, Cox, etc do to try and control the take over that is getting ready to happen.

Google is going to make this very painful for all of the current ISP's.

Edited January 29, 2015 by tennesseetiger

[MacGyver]

The fact that we as Americans tolerate the garbage we put up with from the cable/telecom companies blows my mind.  They've got all of our legislators bought off, and that's convenient  as they skip towards monopoly status.

 

I'd love to see someone other than Google challenging the status quo, but frankly a group like Google may be the only one with pockets deep enough to make a change.  

[tennesseetiger]

The fact that we as Americans tolerate the garbage we put up with from the cable/telecom companies blows my mind.  They've got all of our legislators bought off, and that's convenient  as they skip towards monopoly status.

 

I'd love to see someone other than Google challenging the status quo, but frankly a group like Google may be the only one with pockets deep enough to make a change.  

That is the key...google is already one of the largest companies in the world so its nothing for them to dive in and destroy the monopoly that the current ISP's and TV providers have created.

[MacGyver]

That is the key...google is already one of the largest companies in the world so its nothing for them to dive in and destroy the monopoly that the current ISP's and TV providers have created.

I agree with the tactical part of Google being involved.  It's probably the consumer's only real option for change right now.

 

The problem I have with it is philosophical. The fact is that Google is one of the largest companies in the world - they're already a defacto monopoly.  They've been turning their back on that whole "do no evil" thing for a while.  What happens when they eliminate the competition?

[tennesseetiger]

I agree with the tactical part of Google being involved.  It's probably the consumer's only real option for change right now.

 

The problem I have with it is philosophical. The fact is that Google is one of the largest companies in the world - they're already a defacto monopoly.  They've been turning their back on that whole "do no evil" thing for a while.  What happens when they eliminate the competition?

I'm convinced that Google is Skynet from Terminator...they already do a boat load of contract work for the government "weapons, robots, detection systems, analysis, etc etc etc" so they are already laying the ground work. Now they are going to lay the infrastructure to support everything and boom...you have Skynet.

[JohnC]

The fact that we as Americans tolerate the garbage we put up with from the cable/telecom companies blows my mind.  They've got all of our legislators bought off, and that's convenient  as they skip towards monopoly status.

 

I'd love to see someone other than Google challenging the status quo, but frankly a group like Google may be the only one with pockets deep enough to make a change.  

 

I totally agree with you there! 

[2.ooohhh]

I totally agree with you there! 

 

There are others that have been working on fiber in and around Nashville for a while now. All below have a hand in helping making fiber happen here.

 

http://www.united.net/services/fiber-based-internet/why-speed-is-important/

 

http://www.zayo.com/news/zayo-completes-nashville-tennessee-fiber-build

 

http://www.nesnetwork.com/

[2.ooohhh]

BTW saw this while walking to lunch. . .

 

Untitled by systemdelete, on Flickr

[tennesseetiger]

There are others that have been working on fiber in and around Nashville for a while now. All below have a hand in helping making fiber happen here.

 

http://www.united.net/services/fiber-based-internet/why-speed-is-important/

 

http://www.zayo.com/news/zayo-completes-nashville-tennessee-fiber-build

 

http://www.nesnetwork.com/

Yea google isnt necessarily laying all the lines but they are certainly fronting most of the money. Either way, I'm glad its coming to town.

[btq96r]

Why on earth would the price go up?  You know bandwidth prices have been and are falling at a pretty regular rate?  The fiber is a fixed capital cost that should last for the better part of 30 to 40 years, and as we figure out new ways to increase the number of 1Gbps signals across a single fiber pair the cost on that is going down as well.

 

That is the trick Comcast and AT&T have been playing on all of us for years...  bandwidth keeps getting cheaper, the last mile of service (the expensive part of their infrastructure) was paid off 10+ years ago, and they keep raising prices...  on what?  you'll notice their profit margins on these services keep getting higher and higher.

 

Please forgive me if I continue to harbor doubts that a for profit company might decide to incrementally raise rates beyond inflation in operating costs to improve their bottom line.

 

Point made on the web traffic analytics, but I'm not about to put it past them to try and get that rewritten to their favor someday.  Google is very well represented on K Street these days.

 

 

The fact that we as Americans tolerate the garbage we put up with from the cable/telecom companies blows my mind.  They've got all of our legislators bought off, and that's convenient  as they skip towards monopoly status.

 

I'd love to see someone other than Google challenging the status quo, but frankly a group like Google may be the only one with pockets deep enough to make a change.  

 

There have been local alternatives here and there.  Chattanooga is one such example, and there are a few more in Tennessee- Clarksville is one, I think- where the electric company is offering internet service at a better rate than the cable companies.  The competition is out there, but a lot of people don't know about them, because they don't advertise like Comcast and AT&T, who seem to each send me mail offers every week to upgrade services.  Also, the ISP's are getting laws written with those paid off legislators to help prevent such things.

Edited January 30, 2015 by btq96r