Google Fiber was the best ISP experience I’ve ever had. “It just works”. Clear, easy pricing. Amazing, prompt support with an actual human.
Honestly, one of the only positive experiences I’ve had with Google, and based on my experience, one of the few holdouts within Alphabet that’s avoided the Google culture decay that’s been discussed on HN over and over again.
I completely agree! It’s absolutely amazing. No data caps, amazing speed up to 8gbps. The best experience I’ve had with internet.
Also a huge benefit of just living in a city that has Google Fiber is that all the other internet companies treat you much better and mysteriously also don’t have data caps. It’s amazing how a little competition makes the lives of customers better.
I'm sure this has been asked and answered a zillion times but, in the tradition of Larry Wall, I'm lazy. Is the current differentiating factor of Google Fiber their willingness to go into an urban area and actually dig? The reason I ask is because I'm finding that, at least outside of the concrete downtowns, fiber to the premises from both incumbent and independent carriers is becoming very common, even in rural areas.
Fair enough, and I appreciate what Google has done to move it along.
But really, pound for pound, I think cable has been most responsible for democratizing broadband in the US.
The real reason I see fiber even in rural areas is because the incumbent telco was forced to bring it in because their DSL service over copper could no longer compete with what the cable companies were providing over the same coax that's been hanging there for decades. It's really an unfair advantage that the cable companies had when you think about it.
As a side note: my sense has been that normies don't actually appreciate low-latency, inexpensive FTTP until they have it, and maybe not even then. I live in a small metro area that is 100% covered (suburbs and urban) by the incumbent cable company who will give you 300/12 minimum cable broadband, as well as near-100% coverage with FTTP by the incumbent telco (suburbs only). All the techies, including me, have FTTP and most everyone else I know has cable because it's a little cheaper and, to them, equivalent because they only know to compare on the top-line download number and don't care about upload speed or latency (nor should they).
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[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 26.3 ms ] threadHonestly, one of the only positive experiences I’ve had with Google, and based on my experience, one of the few holdouts within Alphabet that’s avoided the Google culture decay that’s been discussed on HN over and over again.
I'm with you though, why try anything new if there's a chance of failure.
Also a huge benefit of just living in a city that has Google Fiber is that all the other internet companies treat you much better and mysteriously also don’t have data caps. It’s amazing how a little competition makes the lives of customers better.
Now they're seeking outside investment for what should be a fairly profitable and predictable deployment.
Is someone anticipating something happening?
That was the goal. Google wanted to popularize ultra high speed connections. They never wanted to be the ISP for the entire US.
Opinions are my own.
But really, pound for pound, I think cable has been most responsible for democratizing broadband in the US.
The real reason I see fiber even in rural areas is because the incumbent telco was forced to bring it in because their DSL service over copper could no longer compete with what the cable companies were providing over the same coax that's been hanging there for decades. It's really an unfair advantage that the cable companies had when you think about it.
As a side note: my sense has been that normies don't actually appreciate low-latency, inexpensive FTTP until they have it, and maybe not even then. I live in a small metro area that is 100% covered (suburbs and urban) by the incumbent cable company who will give you 300/12 minimum cable broadband, as well as near-100% coverage with FTTP by the incumbent telco (suburbs only). All the techies, including me, have FTTP and most everyone else I know has cable because it's a little cheaper and, to them, equivalent because they only know to compare on the top-line download number and don't care about upload speed or latency (nor should they).