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They have enough experience with Google Fiber now. If they really wanted to put some of that cash to work they could start building fiber networks in 10 cities
by xenadu02 10y ago
They have enough experience with Google Fiber now. If they really wanted to put some of that cash to work they could start building fiber networks in 10 cities per year and blanket the top 50 metro areas (just to side-step arguments about how big the US is and the expense of deploying to rural areas).
The reality is Google Fiber exists to scare the existing players away from squeezing too hard, but not as an actual plan to create a large profitable business to deliver actual competition. Google has orders of magnitude more capital than they would need to do that if they wanted.
- petra 10y agoI'm only guessing,but since Google has no big advantage in the field of fiber, it means that their business there won't have decent margins(or returns-on-capital) like they are used to - which would make them less interested. Also another reason they may worry, is that maybe phased-array antennas may become competitive soon, so investing on fiber for the long term might be risky. On the other hand, stuff like self-driving cars should have a different competitive/economic story, so scaling may look different.