Yes, Google Fiber is subsidized. And that's a feature, not a bug. Cable television and Internet service in the United States is lackluster and expensive partly

Yes, Google Fiber is subsidized. And that's a feature, not a bug. Cable television and Internet service in the United States is lackluster and expensive partly because the market engenders little competition. (It's a classic example of a natural monopoly [0].) The high cost of building out a network is a formidable barrier to entry, one that incumbent providers have happily lain down behind and gone to sleep. The way to fix this broken market is to facilitate competition, and one way to do that is to lower the start-up costs of companies that want to offer new and better services. That's precisely what Kansas City, Mo. and Kansas City, Kan. have done in their partnership with Google. It's reasonable to question these cities' prudence in absorbing part of the very real, very substantial cost of building a fiber network from scratch. Whether it proves a wise investment will depend in large part on what they get out of the deal. But that includes free gigabit Internet for dozens of schools, libraries, community centers, and public buildings, plus the centerpiece of an effort to put Kansas City on the map as an attractive place to start and run a tech company. (That effort formally gets underway on Monday [1].) I live in Kansas City, and I've signed up for Google Fiber. I'm here partly because I'm excited about what I'll be able to do with it, and what others will do with. So I'm biased, but it looks like a good investment to me. 0. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_monopoly http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_monopoly 1. http://www.siliconprairienews.com/2012/09/officials-set-to-unveil-strategic-tech-effort-launch-kc-at-monday-event http://www.siliconprairienews.com/2012/09/officials-set-to-u...