While I have been critical of Google Fiber, this author was on the board of directors of ICANN, and is an extremely well-regarded professor of internet and communications law. She represents a viewpoint that I disagree with somewhat, but she is articulate and very well read in this area. Previous submissions regarding Google Fiber seem to have been announcements from Google itself, which were, to put it mildly, devoid of critical assessment.
This argument mostly holds water, except for one gaping hole: sports. In the US at least, anyone who cares about watching sports at home will be the slave of a pay TV service for what looks like the foreseeable future. Even streaming the Olympics on the Internet required proof of a pay TV subscription.
Mark Cuban, who knows a couple of things about sports and broadcasting over the Internet, has written that he doesn't think streaming is a feasible option for most US households, for pretty clear technical reasons. He may not be right, but he makes cogent points.
Gigabit or no, until sports comes to streaming in a big way, most US households will have pay TV.
I agree that some people will keep cable for sports, but cable has been losing about 1 million households a year recently (http://www.bgr.com/2012/04/04/over-1-million-u-s-cable-subsc...). That's driven mostly by internet access, and faster internet will accelerate that phenomenon (even if cable keeps those willing to pay $600 a year for sports.)
True, except that some people decide that for the games they want to see they will just head down to the local sports bar. Your true sports fanatics aren't going to give up cable/sat anytime soon, but people that mostly watch regular shows and occasionally watch sports are going to consider that option.
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[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 43.8 ms ] threadPeople already moving away from paying $50/month for TV, and the TV connection will be even less valuable once you have a gigabit internet connection.
Mark Cuban, who knows a couple of things about sports and broadcasting over the Internet, has written that he doesn't think streaming is a feasible option for most US households, for pretty clear technical reasons. He may not be right, but he makes cogent points.
Gigabit or no, until sports comes to streaming in a big way, most US households will have pay TV.
Intriguing. Wonder what that costs.
$300.