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Is Google Fiber still expanding? Last I heard it was pretty much cut.
by collinf 8y ago
Is Google Fiber still expanding? Last I heard it was pretty much cut.
- HillaryBriss 8y agoyou're right. they're not significantly expanding. i don't think it was really paying off in any useful way. The rule change won't necessarily spur more Google Fiber deployment, since the ISP has other financial problems and has largely stopped expansion of fiber into new cities.
- blitmap 8y agoI wonder if Google could pivot to offering legal services for establishing municipal broadband. There has to be some way they can recoup the costs by acting as the legal 'spear' for cities that are unaware of how to offer greater competition and allow smaller ISPs in (if not acting as their own).
- brownbat 8y agoGoogle grew up in a services era by replacing a hugely human intensive service with an algorithm. Navigating local laws might be doable with their current expertise, but would definitely be human intensive, absent a real breakthrough in AI. OTOH, there is that automated portal to fight traffic tickets. I wonder if Google tried to automate and A/B test more complicated court or municipal filings how it would do in the long run.
- scarface74 8y agoI don’t think Google Fiber is expanding, but it did spur the rest of the ISPs. AT&T seems to be expanding its gigabit footprint rapidly (https://m.att.com/shopmobile/internet/gigapower/coverage-map.html?referrer=&fromDesktop=true https://m.att.com/shopmobile/internet/gigapower/coverage-map...) and not just to most affluent sections of the metro area where I live. Comcast is trying but they are still overpriced compared to AT&T and the upload speeds are abysmal- 35Mbps
- brianherbert 8y agoFWIW, Google Fiber is actively being rolled out here in Louisville.
- Corrado 8y agoYes, and I recently had an AT&T fiber line installed in my house because of it. I'm 100% certain that if Google Fiber hadn't started deployments in Louisville I would not have a fiber connection today. Even if it's not from Google. Thank you Google!
- Washuu 8y agoGoogle Fiber is still being built in Huntsville, AL. It straight up made Comcast, WOW, and AT&T all start rolling out gigabit. The only other local provider, Mediacom, had already begun rolling out gigabit before Google even announced its plans for the area.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- rayiner 8y agoThere is an assumption among folks in the tech community that there is no competition between providers serving different markets--i.e. what Verizon does in Maryland cannot affect what Comcast does in Delaware. However, the idea that Google Fiber is "spur[ring] the rest of the ISPs" to roll out gigabit is accepted without question, even though Google Fiber serves very few markets. Verizon, for example, upgraded FiOS to gigabit even though Google Fiber serves no Verizon territory and has shown zero willingness to overbuild another fiber provider, and after Google Fiber announced it was downshifting deployment. One of those premises has to be wrong.
- oh-kumudo 8y agoGoogle fiber is dead internally. My friend works there said the org has been reduced and employees repurposed to other orgs.
- jrockway 8y agoThat is indeed why I left Google, but that was almost two years ago at this point. Last I heard they changed their mind and are starting things back up with brand new people. Being an ISP is just too appealing a business model. It's 95% profit once you've paid off the loans for the infrastructure. And when you're Google, you don't need loans.
- rayiner 8y ago> It's 95% profit once you've paid off the loans for the infrastructure. This is FUD, and it doesn't even pass the smell test.[1] Maintaining broadband infrastructure is incredibly labor intensive (and the required labor is high-skill and often unionized). To use Chattanooga's EBP as an uncontroversial example: https://static.epb.com/annual-reports/2017/media/EPB_2017_Financial_Report.pdf https://static.epb.com/annual-reports/2017/media/EPB_2017_Fi.... In FY 2017, it's fiber optic division had revenues of $150 million and expenses of $122 million (not including interest on the underlying fiber optic system, which it looks like is accounted for on the electricity side of the business). That's an operating profit margin of about 20%,[1] which is actually pretty good. Verizon's wireline division in most years has an operating profit margin of under 5%. (EBP, being in a right-to-work southern state, almost certainly has lower labor expenses than Verizon, with its primarily north-east footprint.) [1] And that's before taxes. A telco can't pull a double Irish with a Dutch sandwich because all its revenues and expenses are domestic. Verizon's effective income tax rate prior to the Trump cuts was 34%: https://247wallst.com/telecom-wireless/2018/01/23/verizon-earnings-outlook-get-boost-from-new-tax-law https://247wallst.com/telecom-wireless/2018/01/23/verizon-ea....
- moofree 8y agoIn Austin, at least, though we might be among the last. In February of 2017, they microtrenched our streets and installed fiber. On Tuesday of this week, they put up No Parking signs on the street again, ostensibly to do whatever else they need to actually bring us live.