4 ms·

GFiber is the antidote to these parasitic bastards. They have the cash to push last-mile FTTH to every metro area in the country. I think they own the dark fibe

GFiber is the antidote to these parasitic bastards. They have the cash to push last-mile FTTH to every metro area in the country. I think they own the dark fiber backbone to do it too. Here's hoping that G thoroughly topples every last one of them.

jebblue 12y ago
Seconded, both comments. Google has a real chance to become a dominant ISP without becoming a despicable one.
- rpgmaker 12y ago
  Five years ago I might have agreed with you. There's no reason to trust that google (another giant private company that disabled my ability to comment on youtube or rate android apps because I dared not to want to join g+) won't pull some crap once they're in a dominant position in the ISP market. Like with many other things google saw the writing on the wall regarding how they at the behest of the ISP and looked for ways to be at least minimally prepared for the worst.
  - existencebox 12y ago
    At the risk of a trite response, it's the evil you know versus the evil you don't, and frankly getting rid of the evil I know (pretty consistent 5-10% packet loss across the board, spiking during bad weather, repeatedly tracked to terrible work in the outdoor cable boxes, but that I get charged 40$ a pop to temporarily have them fix) is worth a gamble in my books.
  - jonny_eh 12y ago
    Being coerced into joining a free social network that no one uses is nothing compared to the horrors offered by Comcast.
rayiner 12y ago
But is it a good use of their cash? Fiber isn't a high return business, especially in a regulated environment with build out requirements.
- wolfwyrd 12y ago
  It's not the Fiber that's the fee earner. By having more people connected with faster, more stable connections they can continue pushing the envelope with things like higher definition on YouTube and suchlike but this is the razzle-dazzle that people will see without noting the true purpose; you're accessing the net through their service so they can now pin all of your surfing habits to a physical person driving more benefit to their primary Ad business.
  - coldpie 12y ago
    Just imagine what end-users can do with gigabit upload speeds. If you think streaming is big now, just wait until Google Fiber kicks the gigabit market into high gear. This is one of the best things Google is doing right now, and I can't wait to see how it changes the Internet.
dingaling 12y ago
> GFiber is the antidote to these parasitic bastards. Google Fiber is a contended service, just like every other retail ISP. They're not doing anything particularly different. Here's the average transfer rate on their 1 Gbps headline product: http://www.speedtest.net/isp/google-fiber http://www.speedtest.net/isp/google-fiber Yes, 190 Mbps. Fast, but still contended.
- eurleif 12y ago
  Is it possible that's more to do with people testing over WiFi than with the speed of Google Fiber itself? It's hard to tell a lot about the data, since they only provide averages.
- asandweech 12y ago
  I think that average includes the free tier of Google Fiber which if I remember correctly is 5 mbps.
- arebop 12y ago
  I've heard that Google Fiber has inspired other ISPs in its service areas to initiate high-speed service. I wanted to see this contention though so I clicked around in speedtest.net a bit. Can you point out some contention, because I didn't actually find it [http://www.speedtest.net/local/kansas-city-mo http://www.speedtest.net/local/kansas-city-mo].

jebblue 12y ago

Seconded, both comments. Google has a real chance to become a dominant ISP without becoming a despicable one.

rpgmaker 12y ago
Five years ago I might have agreed with you. There's no reason to trust that google (another giant private company that disabled my ability to comment on youtube or rate android apps because I dared not to want to join g+) won't pull some crap once they're in a dominant position in the ISP market. Like with many other things google saw the writing on the wall regarding how they at the behest of the ISP and looked for ways to be at least minimally prepared for the worst.
- existencebox 12y ago
  At the risk of a trite response, it's the evil you know versus the evil you don't, and frankly getting rid of the evil I know (pretty consistent 5-10% packet loss across the board, spiking during bad weather, repeatedly tracked to terrible work in the outdoor cable boxes, but that I get charged 40$ a pop to temporarily have them fix) is worth a gamble in my books.
- jonny_eh 12y ago
  Being coerced into joining a free social network that no one uses is nothing compared to the horrors offered by Comcast.

rayiner 12y ago

But is it a good use of their cash? Fiber isn't a high return business, especially in a regulated environment with build out requirements.

wolfwyrd 12y ago
It's not the Fiber that's the fee earner. By having more people connected with faster, more stable connections they can continue pushing the envelope with things like higher definition on YouTube and suchlike but this is the razzle-dazzle that people will see without noting the true purpose; you're accessing the net through their service so they can now pin all of your surfing habits to a physical person driving more benefit to their primary Ad business.
- coldpie 12y ago
  Just imagine what end-users can do with gigabit upload speeds. If you think streaming is big now, just wait until Google Fiber kicks the gigabit market into high gear. This is one of the best things Google is doing right now, and I can't wait to see how it changes the Internet.

dingaling 12y ago

> GFiber is the antidote to these parasitic bastards. Google Fiber is a contended service, just like every other retail ISP. They're not doing anything particularly different. Here's the average transfer rate on their 1 Gbps headline product: http://www.speedtest.net/isp/google-fiber http://www.speedtest.net/isp/google-fiber Yes, 190 Mbps. Fast, but still contended.

eurleif 12y ago
Is it possible that's more to do with people testing over WiFi than with the speed of Google Fiber itself? It's hard to tell a lot about the data, since they only provide averages.
asandweech 12y ago
I think that average includes the free tier of Google Fiber which if I remember correctly is 5 mbps.
arebop 12y ago
I've heard that Google Fiber has inspired other ISPs in its service areas to initiate high-speed service. I wanted to see this contention though so I clicked around in speedtest.net a bit. Can you point out some contention, because I didn't actually find it [http://www.speedtest.net/local/kansas-city-mo http://www.speedtest.net/local/kansas-city-mo].