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Google Fiber Plans & Pricing
- InclinedPlane 14y agoIf this pans out it'll be a huge boost for civilization for one reason: The distributed internet. Today the internet as a transport layer is a multiply redundant mesh, to some degree, but the content of the internet is still highly centralized. Now imagine a world 25 years from now where everyone has >100 mbit/s internet connections and multi-terabyte SSD (or memristor) drives are commonplace and cheap. Now the idea of caching huge chunks of the internet starts not only making sense but becomes imminently practical. Web sites will be viewed less like applications and more like git repos with front-ends.
- pizza 14y agoUsually when people in Silicon Valley use the word "amazing", I roll my eyes. But $0 internet is very amazing. On top of that, $120/mo for cutting edge consumer entertainment is just a slap in the face to other service providers.
- NathanKP 14y agoI wonder how much money Google can make from a single household that is using Google products on the internet? As long as Google makes more money over time than the internet connection costs them, then it could be a very profitable for Google to increase the number of people using Google products and gain great product PR and brand loyalty from these people who get free internet.
- mhurron 14y agoYep, how much monitoring and data collection is Google doing here? I wouldn't sign up for Google provided internet.
- jrockway 14y agoHere's the privacy policy: https://fiber.google.com/legal/privacy.html https://fiber.google.com/legal/privacy.html
- danielweber 14y agoSo it looks like they know which shows you watch (the same way Netflix does). Other departments of google don't know which websites you go to, "except with your consent." There can be a lot of mischief hidden in those 4 words.
- gilrain 14y agoWhile this would normally be a concern, I don't think many people trust Comcast or Time Warner any more than Google.
- mhurron 14y agoComcast and TWC don't wrap all their services in a single, trackable userID.
- MitziMoto 14y agoYeah, If they show me one more ad relevant to my interests, I'm deleting my Google account all together!
- VikingCoder 14y ago"Amazon has found that every 100 ms of latency costs them 1% in sales." "Google has found that an extra 500 ms in search page generation time made traffic drop by 20%." http://royal.pingdom.com/2008/09/23/latency-costs-sales-and-drives-visitors-away/ http://royal.pingdom.com/2008/09/23/latency-costs-sales-and-... I don't think Google plans to bring this level of high-speed internet to everyone in the US, but they're certainly trying to spur the competition on. If people use the internet more, Google makes more money.
- untog 14y ago$120/mo for cutting edge consumer entertainment is just a slap in the face to other service providers. I pay $120/mo in New York and get high speed internet, and cable TV with HBO (conspicuously missing from Google's offering) and ESPN. Don't get me wrong, I'd switch to Google in a heartbeat, but I don't actually think that $120 price point is much of a slap in the face to existing providers. EDIT: and this is just in Kansas City. Given the existing variations in price across the country, I'll be very surprised if we are all paying $120 when (if?) it rolls out nationally.
- oskee80 14y agoWell, that depends on your ISP and where you live. I pay $160/month for a higher-tier internet (Blast) and basic cable from Comcast.
- jevinskie 14y agoHow is $70 w/o TV and $120 w/ TV not a slap in the face to other ISPs when it gives you gigabit without data caps?!
- untog 14y agoBecause most customers don't care about gigabit. I'm a tech geek and I don't care about it- my existing speed (around 10mpbs, I think) has rarely posed problems for me. In any case, $120 in Kansas City is not ever going to translate to $120 in New York City.
- 27182818284 14y agoThis is incorrect. It is why places like T-Mobile run commercials about caps and why there are tons of articles and blogs and Twitter comments about data caps. A lot of people care.
- untog 14y agoThat's all mobile, though (and also wasn't what I was commenting about). My provider (Time Warner Cable) doesn't have any data caps- I know others do, of course.
- nilsbunger 14y agoThis is very disruptive on both ends, free and $120 per month. Hits the cable providers, telcom providers, and even apple, Netflix, Hulu, and roku where it hurts. Nice work google! They are still missing a few key channels - CNN, Disney, and espn - all of which my household can't live without (I know, first-world problems). And I think those are some of the harder, more valuable properties to acquire. Anyone know whether google will be able to get those channels?
- masonhensley 14y agoCutting edge is right... "Record up to eight programs simultaneously, just because you can. And with an unprecedented two terabytes of storage, you will never have to worry about having enough space to record your favorite shows."
- snprbob86 14y agoAnd the included remote is a Nexus 7. Sounds almost too good to be true.
- criswell 14y agoI hope they still provide a regular remote of some sort. I don't want to have to unlock a tablet and go to an app to change the channel.
- duaneb 14y agois $120/mo good? That's more than any other bill I pay except rent.
- smacktoward 14y agoIt's comparable to the price of the usual "Triple Play" Internet+cable+phone service offers from cable companies and telcos.
- olifante 14y agoIt still sounds outrageously expensive to me. In Portugal the cheapest fiber triple-play plans cost $40 a month.
- smacktoward 14y agoI probably should have clarified that it's competitive to those packages offered in the USA. We're used to getting gouged by our telcos here in the Land of the Free :D
- hesselink 14y agoI had the same feeling, but maybe the Netherlands are just cheap. You can get phone/internet/tv combinations here from €40-70. Although the fastest internet connection you get there is usually 'only' 120Mbit.
- lawdawg 14y agoThe $120/mo plan is incredible for what you get, considering 1TB on Google Drive is normally $50/mo. So jealous ...
- thiagodotfm 14y agoHoly shit. That's a lot of porn.
- blktiger 14y agoI'm so sad that I can't get this where I live... :(
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- dkhenry 14y agoNexus 7 as the remote. This could really be a game changer for tablets, and for google.
- soccerdave 14y agoComcast in my area has been hurting due to the local power company offering fast fiber speeds. This is going to be much worse for those local companies. I'm not saying it's bad, that's what happens when you spend 10 years without innovating.
- antonioevans 14y agoHow would they get this into SF or NYC? Verizon currently testing a 300mps I am sure they will scale that a bit in next 1-2 years.
- untog 14y agoGetting this into big cities with established players is going to be an utter nightmare. Although I live in a pretty central area of Brooklyn and still don't have FIOS, so anything that will allow me to get rid of Time Warner Cable will be very, very welcome. That said- TWC has awful customer service, but Google doesn't have the best reputation either. That might be their biggest test in all of this.
- stephengillie 14y agoWhat about smaller markets like Seattle, Portland, or other cities up here? Is there any more info about their plan for build-out or how soon it'll be available in our neighborhoods?
- dannytatom 14y agoI'd imagine it would get to Seattle sooner than later since there's a Google office here?
- stephengillie 14y agoI would think so too...though technically it's in Kirkland...
- dannytatom 14y agoThere's an office in Fremont too, though, I think.
- philwelch 14y agoIn downtown Seattle they already have competition in the form of CondoInternet.
- babar 14y agoThe cable channel lineup looks limited (no ESPN? can you add HBO?), so I wonder if they will get much adoption there. Internet pricing looks fantastic.
- pkulak 14y agoEspn is the only reason I have cable.
- discountgenius 14y agoNo AMC, no FX either... this is basic basic cable here.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- dannytatom 14y agoI still plan to get it once it gets to Seattle, but I'm kinda bummed out that there's no Cartoon Network (specifically Adult Swim).
- jcampbell1 14y agoESPN is the most expensive cable channel. They charge the provider roughly $4/month if it is part of a main package, or $20/month if it is part of an upgrade.
- methodin 14y agoOne would think if this gets a decent adoption rate that they could/should offer such channels a more lucrative deal than what current providers offer. This all depends, of course, on how they can make money off this and how much.
- Nemisis7654 14y agoAccording to The Verge: "There's a basic version with network channels and some basic cable, on up to the movie channels like HBO." So it looks like you can get HBO... Source: http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/26/3188845/google-fiber-tv http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/26/3188845/google-fiber-tv
- topherjaynes 14y agoWas so excited then saw it was just limited to Kansas City, what a tease, but glad to see they're 'shaking' things up.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- danvideo 14y agoRight, I would have preferred a quiet roll out, until large metro areas were ready to go live. It's going to be at least 2013 before most of us even have the option to use it. Sort of like hearing that the new Android upgrade is available, but only international phones for the next year, and your phone might not even support the new version.
- mmahemoff 14y agoThey're offering it to an entire city, a public website was always going to be necessary.
- danielweber 14y agoThey are encouraging people to pre-register to figure out where the demand is.
- dusing 14y agoI would guess more like 2015+ for most metros
- will_work4tears 14y agoI would have signed up in a heartbeat. I grew up in KC but do not live anywhere near there now. Come to Western Washington, Google!
- cmelbye 14y agoIt's still limited to just Kansas City? Hm.
- patrickod 14y agoI'm hoping that this becomes available in the bay area in the coming years. $70/month for gigabit connection is an absolute no brainer.
- ghshephard 14y agoGiven that I pay $69.16/month for service from Comcast that in theory should be 30 mbits, but in practice ranges all the way down to 3 megabits for hours at a time, depending on time of day, yes, it would be a no brainer. $70/month for an actual 30 megabit connection would be a no brainer as far as I'm concerned.
- whichdan 14y agoI'm paying around $100/mo for 50mbits, and it seems to fluctuate between 30 and 60 realistically. That's for just bare internet service and nothing else. I'd switch to Google in a heartbeat, provided they have atleast basic support.
- michaelhoffman 14y agoWhy start this in Kansas City? Is this like trying to produce a future Broadway show in New Haven or San Diego, so you can work out the kinks before you go to the big time?
- cschmidt 14y agoThey had a big competition where lots of cities bid to be the first city, and they won. One issues was that all utilities in town are above ground on poles. They wouldn't have to bury any cables, just string them along the existing poles.
- jeffool 14y agoThey courted communities about two years ago for this. The idea was to find an area that would work with them, and actively help. KC "won". It makes things easier, I would imagine, if an entire city council was lobbying for you.
- _delirium 14y agoThey solicited proposals from cities (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/think-big-with-gig-our-experimental.html http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/think-big-with-gig-ou..., http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/next-steps-for-our-experimental-fiber.html http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/next-steps-for-our-ex...), and ended up choosing Kansas City as the initial site (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/ultra-high-speed-broadband-is-coming-to.html http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/ultra-high-speed-broa...). It looks like they wanted a market with between 50,000 and 500,000 subscribers as the initial one, so not NYC or SF or LA. And, wanted strong local support to avoid regulatory problems.
- bicknergseng 14y ago"wanted strong local support to avoid regulatory problems." Probably the most genius part of this whole thing. It may the reason we're not hearing about the lobbying backlash someone like Uber received.
- jonknee 14y ago
- hoka 14y agohaving spent the summer on true gigabit internet, it's a shame people won't even understand how big of a difference this makes. Their site makes a cute attempt at it, but I don't think it does it justice. Gig internet just has to be experienced.
- rplnt 14y agoFree internet. That's rather creepy from Google. When they roll this big it would hurt other providers, which in itself isn't bad, but having only Google as a choice is. Can they even do that by the way (anti-monopoly regulations)?
- ConstantineXVI 14y agoThey'll have a hell of a time getting in other cities in the first place. AT&T and the major cablecos typically have an absolute, legally-sanctioned stranglehold on their markets.
- clavalle 14y agoBut up until now there have been no clear alternatives when citizens try to fight those sanctioned monopolies. If Google is offering 100x the speed in another city, Time Warner, Comcast, AT&T etc. will have a hard time explaining why they should retain their monopoly unless they offered something competitive.
- ConstantineXVI 14y agoExclusive franchises, building permits, neighborhood associations, etc. Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and AT&T have been playing this game for a long time. It'll take fighting through tons of telco/cableco-paid for local laws for Google to get in anywhere; just because they've made it in one city won't make the next any easier (in fact, probably harder). I hope Google (or someone else) pulls it off, but it's not going to be easy by any means.
- nemo1618 14y agoNot sure if this is at all relevant, but a judge ruled in 2005 that distributing GPL software for free is not anti-competitive: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace_v._International_Business_Machines_Corp._et_al.#FSF_lawsuit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace_v._International_Busine...
- ghshephard 14y ago
- chaselee 14y agoThis is exploding with awesome at every seam.
- discountgenius 14y agoSo... I can get gigabit internet for either $70/month locked in for 2 years or $25/month locked in for 1 year. I'm not seeing the point of the $70 pricing option.
- jeffool 14y agoThe free option is 5Mbps down/1 Mbps up.
- grecy 14y agoThe Free plan ($25/mo 1 year)says: Up to 5Mbps download, 1Mbps upload speed. The $70/mo for 2 years says: Up to one gigabit upload & download. Big difference
- oskee80 14y agoThat 25/month for one year on the free plan is only for 5Mb down, 1Mb up... not Gb speeds.
- sondh 14y agoThe third package is not having gigabit connection (at least, for now). The speed is 5Mbps/1Mbps (D/U) only
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- normalfaults 14y agoDuring the live event it was mentioned that premium channels will be available at an extra charge per month. Google wanted to simplify the cable line up as much as possible.
- Xcelerate 14y agoWhen I was at Georgia Tech, I got 650 Mbps. You realize the bottleneck isn't your connection at that point -- it's everyone else's. Which means a lot of sites still download just as slow. Although the big sites have optimized data centers, so it was pretty cool downloading an entire OS in a few seconds (although I think my hard drive write speed limited that a bit too). My father works in the fiber optics industry and has told me that if fiber was brought directly to each home, every person would have more bandwidth than they knew what to do with. One thin, tiny fiber can carry an INSANE amount of information. The problem is the processing circuitry that converts these light signals into digital signals. These NICs have a much lower throughput than the fiber itself, but if the fiber infrastructure was already in place everywhere, upgrades would be much cheaper and quicker. (In other words, Google Fiber has easy upgrade potential to 10, 100, ... Gbps).
- stephengillie 14y agoWould Dropbox, Google Drive, Skydrive, Amazon cloud storage, et al exist today if we could send data across the US at even just 650Mbps?
- lsc 14y agoyes. They would have to dramatically decrease their bandwidth charges, and they'd have to lower their charges in general (just 'cause the barrier to entry for their competition would be lower) but if anything, having a fat pipe at home would make storing things remotely a lot more attractive. Think about it; with that kind of a pipe, you could boot your desktop off of a drive in my datacenter, two cities away.
- freehunter 14y agoThink about services like OnLive (who even offers Windows in the cloud). We have these today, but if we had fiber everywhere, we likely wouldn't have the dvd drive in the Xbox 360. We certainly wouldn't need BluRay.
- agildehaus 14y ago
- api 14y agoThank GOD they're disrupting this industry. All the telcos are worthless "Soviet bureaus" that deserve death. It's really sort of amazing to think about. In all my years on this planet I have never been pleased with a telecom company. Never. I have always felt like I was paying far too much for inferior service, contemptible customer support, and endless efforts to further "monetize" me through harassing phone calls trying to sell me more stuff, intrusive DNS systems that redirect me to their crappy web sites, etc. There is not a single other industry I can say that about, certainly not one that comes to mind so quickly. Hell, I can't even say that about the government. As if that's not bad enough, this industry seems to spend a lot of money lobbying to destroy the open Internet, which is like a car company lobbying to increase the number of annoying traffic regulations in order to make it less enjoyable to drive.
- philwelch 14y agoBe careful what you wish for. I'm dubious of getting any kind of service from a company known for not having any kind of customer service whatsoever.
- ktizo 14y agoI don't mind having no call centers to call as long as the service works better and the network is smart. Currently, you are having to use a phone to verbally tell the telco where the problems are on the network they run, which is insane.
- wtvanhest 14y agoYou will be on a phone one way or another when the internet is down.
- b0 14y agoUnless you have ADSL...
- ktizo 14y agoYes, but I would rather not spend all of that listening to fur-elise for the umpteenth time while getting lost in the arcane submenus of a corporate telephone system, all the while being told how valued I am as a customer by a repeating disembodied voice.
- dysoco 14y agoLiving in Argentina, and paying quite a lot for a 3Mb/s connection, now I hate America a bit more :D
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- brh_jr 14y agoHow is Google going to get past all the state and city monopolies?
- azakai 14y agoDoes anyone know how they make money from the free option?
- jjcm 14y agoThey don't, but I'm guessing since they're just entering the industry having more subscribers is their number one priority right now. Delivering a product at a loss is nothing new.
- drewinglis 14y agoIt's laying the fiber that's the expensive part, and there is a $300 fee to pay for that. In terms of marginal cost, it really doesn't cost them anything to serve another 5MB/1MB connection. They want to get you hooked so you'll want to upgrade later.
- harpastum 14y agoI would expect they're looking for two things. First, they're hoping many of these users convert to gigabit after a short time ("Just flip the switch, and you get 200x faster internet!"), which will cover the loss from the free users. Second, straight market penetration. The more people that use the service (even the free one), the more visibility Google gets as an ISP, which has other benefits.
- mrschwabe 14y agoGoogle has a private working relationship with the NSA - so its anyone's guess but it is conceivable that Google is receiving money from them to subsidize this cost. http://rt.com/usa/news/court-nsa-google-agency-053/ http://rt.com/usa/news/court-nsa-google-agency-053/
- bryanlarsen 14y agoThey don't. The $300 installation fee doesn't cover the cost of running fiber to your house + the cost of the box. But it's hugely cheaper to wire your house at the same time they are wiring your neighbours. That's the catch -- the deal disappears once the neighbourhood is connected. They're not going to do a truck roll for $300. Once your house is connected, upsell potential is a lot better than if it isn't.
- andyl 14y agoWow - impressive. Can't wait to say goodbye to comcast.
- corford 14y agoI might just be overcome with the sheer impressiveness of this but it feels like the real reason behind everything that Google has done over the last 5 or so years (Youtube, Android, Chromebook, buying dark fibre, Chrome, G+, tablets etc.) has suddenly come in to crystal clear focus. They're going for the jugular with a grand unified strategy the likes of which the tech industry has never seen before.
- sounds 14y agoThere has been a good discussion on the previous article: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4293530 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4293530 w1ntermute has a comment that has been highly up-voted: "I don't know about you, but I'll take Google over Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, etc. any day of the week, regardless of their conflicts of interest." Google may have an impressive business strategy, but they haven't done anything to lock out a competitor. Google has tough competition in every single area you have listed.
- corford 14y agoThanks, hadn't seen the other thread. They have tough competition but who else is able (or even capable) of offering such a compellingly unified and cutting edge platform? If they can crack the content to go with the platform, they've won imho. Worst case: the incumbents are forced to up their game dramatically.
- kennethcwilbur 14y agoIf Google Fiber catches on, and you consider combining it with Google TV, Youtube content and Google TV Ads, the strategic possibilities are fascinating. I wish I knew whether enough consumers are willing to pay to justify a large-scale infrastructure rollout. There is a whiff of that old saying here - Google engineers are great at building products for Google engineers.
- quellhorst 14y agoMeanwhile Verizon FIOS (fiber) is available in hundreds of cities. http://www.consumerfiber.com/fios-availability http://www.consumerfiber.com/fios-availability
- icefox 14y agoOf course on all of their plans they limit your speed. The top speed at over $200 is only 300/65Mbps Edit: and that is only for the connect, not the TV service. And the router they give you isn't very good and same goes for the 'cable/tv box' which sucks up more power than my PC and likes to die once a week forcing me or my wife to physically unplug and re-plug it if we want to watch Tv. It would be a far stretch to say Fios is good, it is only better than the alternatives in my area.
- sootzoo 14y agoThere are some frustrating limitations. In my region (Philadelphia), they will literally have one street with full service and on the next block, they'll only sell you DSL. They announced not long ago they were "scaling back" their buildout, I suppose declaring something akin to "Mission Accomplished" when I still cannot get FiOS from them and, inexplicably, my neighbors not 500 yards away can.
- kayzee 14y agoIs anything actually 'free' in this world?? I wonder how much of my data they will be using without my permission to serve me ads...although I guess targeted TV commercials are a heck of a lot better than random stuff I see now. Double-edged sword if you ask me.
- eavc 14y agoThe only thing free here is low-tier internet if you pay for the installation. This isn't about ads, this is about installation.
- normalfaults 14y agoThe rally concept is pretty neat. If your fiberhood gets enough registrations you will get the next install batch plus all schools, government buildings and other public establishments will get gigabit in your fiberhood.
- romaniv 14y agoThis would be awesome if it wasn't coming from Google. If they control the browser, a good chunk of websites/services and the delivery mechanism, there are just too many opportunities for abuse. Although, maybe this will force other telecom providers to stop sucking so much.
- neilk 14y agoDoes this alter the trend towards mobile? Maybe not in terms of the kind of device you use - it might still be a tablet or a phone-like device - but in terms of data delivered over mobile telephony networks? Perhaps part of the reason that my iPhone can compete with my desktop is that home internet is just so terrible. Maybe there will be a whole new class of bandwidth hungry apps that can't be duplicated in anything going over a phone network. In places like Korea I believe they have high bandwidth fiber everywhere; what's the experience there?
- recoiledsnake 14y agoWhile I am super happy that the cable industry is getting disrupted as it deserves to be(the wireless industry sucks too, maybe a tech company can buy TMobile or Sprint), I feel uneasy about the following two points: 1) Profitability: I wonder how profitable and sustainable this is for Google? They can subsidize it for only so long before deciding to discontinue it as has been happening to many of their services recently. 2) With Google as your ISP and TV channel provider, they will have the potential to know everything about you, probably even more than you know about yourself! Imagine you use all their services, they will know about your surfing habits(via ISP, Google searches and clicks, G+ buttons, Google ads, Google analytics etc.), your location(Android location services/GPS. Google Maps), TV channel viewing habits, Gmail, social network(Google+), phone calls(Google voice), etc. etc. It will also provide malicious and state actors with a one stop shop to steal/request information from.
- normalfaults 14y agoon Point 2: How is this any different then today with Comcast/Verizon etc..?
- mehulkar 14y agoIt's different because Comcast/Verizon don't have your email and your calendar and your web surfing habits and your voicemail and your text messages and your contacts and did I mention your email?
- WiseWeasel 14y agoAnd ads/analytics/+1 buttons on pretty much every website ever.
- angryasian 14y agopeople have been using this argument for years, just wondering has there ever been any example(citation) where this has been an issue yet ?
- 14y ago
- pwny 14y agoI guess living in Montreal means I'm not getting a piece of this action any time soon. It had the merit of making me reconsider how I live my life though. When you think about moving to another country, even for just one quick second, for an internet service, it's probably way too central to your way of life to be healthy.
- dgudkov 14y agoI'm sure big Canadian telcos are now forced to do something in the next 12-24 months, otherwise they will lose time, and then money very soon.
- ______ 14y agoThe country of Australia is spending over $31 billion on a project called the National Broadband Network (NBN) to bring fiber directly to 97% of homes. That project is enormous in scale compared to the Kansas City experiment.
- JL2010 14y agoDid anyone else catch the "2 year contract" bullet point? Despite that, of all the Telcos out there, I suppose I would be more willing to sign one with Google than any of them.
- denzil_correa 14y agoThe most important piece of information I see than the speeds is "No Data Caps". Will this mean the end of Fair Usage Policies? I am anxiously hoping that this is the start of the end of the evil FUP policies.
- danielweber 14y agoIs it dedicated fiber, or are you sharing with neighbors? If shared, just how many of your neighbors can shoving blu-ray rips around before your VOIP suffers? (Of course, even with dedicated, you still are meeting other people's bits somewhere.)
- denzil_correa 14y agoI presume it's dedicated. "No data caps" is a huge bonus in the world of FUPs.
- agumonkey 14y agoOnlive must be very excited.
- dgudkov 14y agoIt seems like Google TV now done right.
- DASD 14y agoThis might just make Kansas City the tech center scene for colocation startups. Run this out of your bedroom. Amazon watch out! Note to self: Cross KC off my list of colo locations if an offer appears with outrageously low pricing.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- tokenadult 14y agoI browsed around the site, http://fiber.google.com/how/ http://fiber.google.com/how/ and although I have friends and relatives who live in the Kansas City metropolitan area, I don't live there myself. So as rollout happens there, I'll be glad to hear from HN participants who live there what's happening in the local Internet access market. Meanwhile, I'll still be dealing with the same SMALL subset of providers who reach my neighborhood as I have for years. Please let us know what you think of Google Fiber when it arrives in your neighborhood, okay?
- dr_ 14y agoVery interesting. All the packages sound great but it's really the free internet that's going to prove to be disruptive. I, as many other I'm guessing, have moved away from traditional television, watching a lot of stuff on my laptop and iPad. There are a couple of TV shows I enjoy but I'm not bound to them and don't mind purchasing the episodes at a later time. And you have to imagine that Apple and Google will strike their own deals with content creators at some point.
- cocoflunchy 14y agoWhat's the average price for an average connection in the US ? Here in France, I get Internet + TV + free phone to 50+ countries for about 40$/mo. I don't think there is anything above 60-80£/mo here (that would include all of the above + mobile + paid TV channels), so 120$/mo seems really kind of expensive to me!
- smackfu 14y agoUsually you'd expect to pay $100 or so for that. But the history is that a cable TV package alone is generally $60 and has been increasing. The secondary TV channels have figured out that if they produce high quality original content (like Breaking Bad or Mad Men) they will be considered essential by the consumer, and can raise their price to the TV cable operators. Who then passes that on to the consumer.
- conradfr 14y agoSo does it cut your Internet and your TV when your Google account gets suspended ?
- jps359 14y agoI don't live in KC, but I'm very excited to see what kind of splash this will make in the industry. A lot of neat things might come from this.
- mrschwabe 14y agoNo thanks. Google already harvests enough data on me that I don't need to pipe my entire internet & TV connection through them.
- akennberg 14y agoOne of these gigabit subscriptions is enough for a few houses / apartment floor. :-)
- tubbo 14y agoaww i wish they were around philly
- blinkingled 14y agoKansas, KS and Kansas, MO - what's with the Kansas fixation Google? This sounds good but if they are going to take more than a few years just to move out of Kansas I am not sure if it would even relevant in the grand scheme of things.
- aggronn 14y agoKansas City is partly in both states. Why KC? Google had a competition and they won.
- wildmXranat 14y agoWe Canadians need this so badly it's not even funny. I would honestly pay for a 5 year long contract as long if that's what it takes.
- spiffworks 14y agohttps://fiber.google.com/legal/privacy.html https://fiber.google.com/legal/privacy.html Read this first, and read it well.
- ryana 14y agoI noticed that there are no FOX Broadcast Company channels on their channel list. That's a shame because I'd really want to keep Fox Soccer Channel if I was switching. I would guess that has something to do with Google and Rupert Murdoch's well publicized icy relationship. It'll be interesting to see who blinks first if this takes off.
- ditoa 14y agoGod I hope they bring this to the UK!
- yumraj 14y agoDamn!!!! Their free tier is better (with a higher upload speed) that what the max AT&T can provide my home, via DSL, in San Jose, Capital of Silicon Valley. Go figure....
- suyash 14y agoGoogle is taking over our lives :(
- gojomo 14y agoThis is another demonstration of why federal network neutrality regulations would be premature.
- pasbesoin 14y agoGoogle: The moment you're in my area, I'll sign up. Unless sonic.net beats you to it. ;-) (Please do whatever you can to speed up planning and deployments in additional areas!)
- drivingmenuts 14y agoI want this in Austin. Now. Yesterday. Seriously, the customer service is a non-issue. You can't do any worse than the telcos/cablecos other than having zero customer service ever. If this forces the entrenched companies to man up and throw down some fiber, it's worth whatever it costs as long as no one is getting physically injured.
- zupreme 14y agoHere's a good quote from a friend of mine, Craig Clausen of New Paradigm Resources Group (a market research firm specializing in telecom): "This is more of a strategic play for Google. As they mentioned, there are three essential components to the Internet (i.e. Google’s business model): Computing power, cloud storage and access. The first two have worked in Google’s favor. The third hasn’t kept pace. The telcos and other access providers (like the cablecos) don’t care about what’s good for Google and broadband speeds aren’t where Google would like them to be. As they’ve done in similar situations (such as wireless and energy), Google is signaling to the telcos that, while they’d prefer not to be in the telecom business, they are certainly capable of doing so. Picking Kansas City – smack dab in the middle of the country – has less to do with Kansas City showing the most interest and more about being able to distribute that message evenly between the coasts. It’s a different type of investment for Google – one in which they hope to spur the access providers into stepping it up or risk having the guy with the deepest pockets step in for them."
- 27182818284 14y agoEven their homepage blows away the others. Simple and flat. It tells me the mbps for each and whether there are data caps. Contrast that with, say, Windstream where you have to go searching to find out the speed of "Merge" The homepage alone is going to do good for the industry.
- laserDinosaur 14y agoCould this ever come to Canada, or would Google be stuck behind the same Canadian ownership requirements that nearly blocked Wind?
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- swalsh 14y agoI think Google has another unmentioned monopoly. Some of the smartest people in the world are employed by them. They have experience in AI, and as seen by the self driving car they also know how to do practical things with it. Google being the kind of company that is opposed to hiring an army of manual labors, could very well create an army of digging robots to lay the fiber for them. I can see google scaling this faster then anyone else.
- thenomad 14y agoSo, anyone know if this is coming outside the US any time soon? I'm getting that "nose pressed against the glass" feeling...
- xutopia 14y agoThis reminds me of when Bill Gates was purported saying that he'd enter the RAM market if prices didn't go down. Google has nothing to lose here. They want a faster web because it means more chances to provide ads. If ISPs aren't willing to provide it they will... and once they start the ISPs will have to follow suit.
- jacoblyles 14y ago"fiber" is a horrible name for a suite of products! (But this still looks awesome)
- Trufa 14y agoComing from a 3rd world country, free Internet sounds like a fiction, my expensive connection is slower than the free one Google is offering! Though I'm happy I will be one of the first homes to have fiber on the country.
- mikebracco 14y agoWith this announcement by Google, we're at stage in the game were cable company execs hear this --> http://youtu.be/_hHDxlm66dE http://youtu.be/_hHDxlm66dE #finishhim #mortalcombat
- Brock_Lee 14y agoWith the "Free Internet" plan, what happens if I pay the construction fee, then move out of my "fiberhood" into a house that isn't part of a fiberhood?
- cma 14y agoDDoS will never be the same
- dakrisht 14y agoKansas City - yeah, that'll do it. I'm sure everyone in Kansas City needs Gigabit Ethernet.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- Metrop0218 14y agoThis is awesome.
- jrwoodruff 14y agoDoes it surprise anyone else that they're offering television with this package? Clearly it makes sense, and seems like a great way to give Apple TV/Roku etc. a run for their money. Plus, if they expand this program, which they presumably will, it could put Google TV in a lot of homes... although it doesn't explicitly state that the 'tv box' will be running Google TV.
- javert 14y agoNote to telcos: If all your customers hate you, you are begging to be made obsolete. Looks like your wish is about to be granted.
- nsxwolf 14y agoThere's no point even checking to see if it's coming to my city. I already know the answer is no.
- e28eta 14y agoI really want this to succeed. I have never had a great experience with high speed Internet. I'd even consider adopting a KC home, and paying some or all of their $300 for free Internet if it meant it would come to the San Jose area sooner. Maybe a Kickstarter to wire a fiberhood?
- nsxwolf 14y agoIs Google going pull a Google with this and keep a copy of every you packet transmit and receive, holding onto it for ever and ever?
- samstokes 14y agoOnly available in Kansas City?
- calinet6 14y agoWho wants to bet these have HD's (or SSDs) in them and are set up for peer-to-peer content caching on the local city network? They'd be stupid if they didn't do that.
- lurchpop 14y agoCool, but do they have a plan that doesn't freely give my data to law enforcement as part of a regular dragnet?
- cygwin98 14y agoI looked at their Term * Resale and Redistribution The Fiber Services are intended for the personal use of you and others with whom you share your residence (including, within reason, guests who are visiting you). You agree not to resell or repackage the Services for use by people other than those with whom you share your residence. If you wish to use the Google Fiber Services to provide Internet service to others, you must enter a separate agreement with Google Fiber that specifically authorizes you to do so. * I do have some questions though. I get that a Fiber user cannot resell the bandwidth like a VPS provider. But how about hosting his own web server running a HN clone site?
- jsprink_banned 14y agoI'm surprised nobody so far has noticed that HBO and Cinemax are missing from the list, but Starz and Encore are not.
- azinman2 14y agoWANT
- mikemoka 14y agoI'm surprised that I wasn't able to find the word privacy mentioned in the first page. I think that Google is clearly losing the "don't be evil" credo, whatever you may think about a specific industry. Google is trying to do everything, Google is not satisfied with ads and is trying to remove the middlemen, all the possible ones. They tried to attack the fashion ecommerce niche with Google Boutiques, they tried to attack Groupon with Google Offers, now they become an Internet Provider, but why? Here are my two cents: -they will be able to know everything, and I mean everything, their users do online, and they are one of the few organizations actually able to parse and exploit this size of data -they will be able to know the identity of their users -they may be able to control the speed or stability of the connection to specific sites, they may even hijack specific banner ads without anyone noticing
- pbhjpbhj 14y agoOne day Google will launch something new and there will be a highlighted note at the top "based on your IP this release doesn't apply where you are [and probably won't ever]" and then I won't need to stare blankly for 10 seconds at an address form working out how it's possible to enter a real [read: my] address in to that weird configuration. But then again, maybe not.
- Kell 14y agoAs a matter of comparison. Here a regular situation in France : I pay 63€ for a nominal 100MBps fiber connection + free calls from my landline (to other landlines in most of the world (more than 100 countries, and all the big ones (but neither Africa nor the Middle East)) and mobile phones in France and US), plus 170 televion channels (that I don't watch anyway), plus a femtocell device, plus a smartphone subsidized (2 years contract) with illimited calls to other mobiles or landlines in France, free SMS and MMS, 1Gb of "high speed" (in average 2Mbps) 3G , after 1Gb it switches to low speed (512Kbps). Oh, and I get Spotify Premium. All that for 63€ a month (That's 78 american $) (but I'm in a 24 months contract) It's quite the usual "quadplay" offer (Television + Phone + Internet + Mobile Phone) here in France. There are cheaper ones. So yeah, at 200$ there is somebody being ripped off. But the Google 120$ option doesn't seem too bad, it's a little less than twice the price I pay here in France, but with great goodies like the tablet, and an incredible 1Gbps... Ten times my official speed. So the markup is deserved. To French people, I have the SFR MultiPack offer with the Carré Web + the Spotify Premium at 5€ option, and the Classic Fiber option (not the Evolution one) cf. http://www.sfr.fr/mobile/multi-packs-de-sfr-mobile-et-adsl.jspe http://www.sfr.fr/mobile/multi-packs-de-sfr-mobile-et-adsl.j...
- jshowa 14y agoRead through a couple of comments and all I see is people bitching about phone and cable companies. The problem is, you can only get Google fiber if you get enough people in your neighborhood that want it and you meet a preregistration goal. Then you can choose the DSL crappy free internet, or the gigabit one for 70/month which is comparable to the Comcast rate, except faster speeds. Of course, the more people that choose Gigabit, the more demand there is to justify a price increase. And, to be honest, my employer is running on fiber with a link speed of 1 Gbps and there isn't that much of a difference between Internet browsing at home.
- funthree 14y ago> Free internet at today's average speeds > $300 construction fee (one time or 12 monthly payments of $25) + taxes and fees Google is going full circle. I wonder if the cost for Google to give internet to people who didn't otherwise have it (and at no charge to them) actually paid dividends because that person is going to immediately generate new revenue for google from the inevitable use of Google/adwords. I think John D. Rockefeller would tip his hat.
- antihero 14y agoAnyone read Snow Crash?
- tarellel 14y agoMother of god!!! drools
- knodi 14y agoHoly shit, I want this.
- jiggy2011 14y ago1 Gigabit Download and Upload! I have always believed that the internet would have been and fundamentally different place if we had fast upload from the beginning. Rather than having everything in the cloud (i.e big corporate datacenters) people would have gotten used to running small server at home. After all was the web not originally designed to work more in this way? This would have fostered a much better culture of privacy and freedom when you have ultimate control of what you are putting online, freedom from TOS etc. Sure there are advantages to big datacenters such as backup and fireproofing etc but is every piece of data really that precious?
- bfe 14y agoI hadn't seen the rabbit mascot before, but I hope it's meant as a nod to Mr. Rabbit from Vernor Vinge's Rainbows End.
- captaintacos 14y agoAfter living in Australia for about two years (probably worst internet in the developed world) and now living in Japan with gigabit speeds I can confidently say: Do thank Google for this and do give them all your money!
- zx1986 14y agoWOW! what a great news! I hope Google keep this job quicken in another country. We here in Taiwan need a REAL FAST Internet!
- robotment 14y agoIt is great, but never can use it.
- daimyoyo 14y agoWhen this comes to Vegas I will buy a TV specifically to take advantage of this. If anyone at Google is reading this, please come here as soon as possible. Seriously, the internet quality out here is atrocious and I REALLY want to support this business model.
- sebastianavina 14y agoWhy Kansas and not Durango, MX?
- bmuon 14y agoI'm astonished! Free 5mb/1mb connection? I have to pay close to us$40/mo for 3mb down in Argentina.
- delackner 14y agoCan't believe no one has mentioned that the TV option does not include AMC, HBO, ESPN, Disney Channel, TNT, CNN, Cartoon Network. (List from the Verge). So the only channel it has that I actually would watch is The Daily Show, I mean Comedy Central, which I can watch on the net for free (in a much better extended length version). Spreading real modern internet infrastructure to the masses in the US though, yes that is a very positive thing.
- EdwardTattsyrup 14y agoI'm sorry but this is not actually happening in a meaningful way for the vast majority of people. Your city will never be on the list. There's way too much local government corruption and cable-co monopoly. Please stop wet dreaming on your HDTV. You'll void the warranty.
- phaikawl 14y agoWhat? FREE internet plan, average speed?? Incredible!
- tapsboy 14y agoGood for KC. Here, 3 blocks from Empire State building in Midtown Manhattan, the max I can get is 10/2 from TWC. FiOS is still negotiating with building authorities.
- orphol 14y agoAnyone know when is so cal is in pipeline
- SjuulJanssen 14y agoIn comparison the pricing of my local provider: http://www.onsbrabantnet.nl/internet-weert http://www.onsbrabantnet.nl/internet-weert
- pradeep89 14y agoI wish, this could come up in India early , Internet is worse here. If you want high speed internet,the charges are too high to afford for common man. I remember before 5 years i used to download at 2 kbps :(, now it's better but not cheap
- catfish 14y agoPlease GOOGLE, please come compete with ATT and TIME Warner in San Diego. I am ready to pay....
- zumth 14y agoIn the FAQ : > Can I run a server from my home? > > Google Fiber is intended as a residential Internet service. Our Terms of Service prohibit running a server. This scares me.
- dropshop 14y agoAnybody else thinking of moving there just for fiber?
- Grepsy 14y agoI really like the little SVG animations on this site. Any ideas of how you would go about authoring this?
- xxiao 14y agoMy only question is, when can I have it in the city I live? While my Roadrunner did a fine job on downloading, the uploading never exceeded 800Kbps, which is really painful these days.
- engtech 14y agoDoes anyone know what hardware companies they are using for their network? Are customers going to have an optical transceiver in their house?
- neduma 14y agothe whole Comcast Experiene is really bad. We bought new HDTV and went comcast store to get HD cable box to watch 2012 Olympics tonight. but they gave some wrong box and said they're sorry.
- dhughes 14y agoBeing in Canada this is going to suck immensely having people just across the border with 1Gbps meanwhile I pay $100 for 15Mbps/950Kbps (cable TV included). Pretty soon I bet I'll come across someone say "Here look at this file...what wrong? It's only 9GB you should be able to download this no problem." Or Xbox oh crap I'll forever be stuck with racist Scottish ten year-olds since I'll never get matched to my own region everyone will be 1Gbps.
- SimonSayz 14y agoSo true. The other I went to change my cellphone plan and god forbid, I asked why the monthly fees are so high in Canada compared to US. The answer "the cost of running a country wide network for so few people is costly" Let me say this, bulls*.
- dhughes 14y agoI know it's not like we are spread evenly across the country just Great Toronto Area (GTA) alone has over six million people out of a country of 34 million. My small city in my small province has almost 50% of the entire population of the province in and around the one main capital city. Clusters of people are in cities in fact I believe a few years ago Canada tipped past being a rural country to an urban one with more people in cities than in the country. If anything you would think that would make it easier to supply mobile phone, TV and Internet service.
- tete 14y agoI am living in Europe/Vienna. I do not know the US situation too well. However I think they really need an option in between. I think neither option is really interesting to the average user. The buy once option with 5/1Mbps seems too low for the average user, while the 1GBit seems really too expensive. Wouldn't offers from 30 to 100MBit make much more sense. That's the broadly available offer here for 20 to 50EUR. Of course we have symmetric fiber offers with 10MBit for 17EUR and 100 for 25EUR too, but that's only available in bigger cities.
- sreyaNotfilc 14y agoIt sucks that I turned down a job in KC during the spring because I didn't want to move away from my house. It would be very cool to have a chance to use Google Fiber. I wonder what the timeline will be to spread this baby nationwide. Then again, I wonder what Congress will do because Google is in yet another industry. Hopefully then can pull this off. It'll be a great future!