People like fast internet. Google sells fast internet. People like Google’s fast internet. So far, so good. But Google doesn’t really like building Google’s fast internet, because it costs a lot of money, takes a lot of time, and is logistically complicated to build and maintain. One answer to that problem? Taking the wires out of the equation. [More]
google fiber
Google Pauses Plans To Build Google Fiber In Their Own Backyard
By 8.9.16
There’s a funny thing about silicon valley: the place in the country synonymous with high-tech, internet-based industry is not one of the places with the fanciest, most modern broadband networks. And now it’s going to have to wait even longer to get its turn. [More]
Charter, Comcast, AT&T Really Want To Stall Chance Of Competition From Google Fiber
By 8.2.16
Consumers really like Google Fiber. Or, at the very least, they like the idea of Google Fiber: when the company says it’s considering bringing its super-speedy internet service to town, prospective subscribers happily sign up and towns do what they need to do to make themselves attractive to the business. And that sits very, very poorly with the companies that are already in town and don’t want to deal with a pesky thing like competition. [More]
Google Buys Gigabit Broadband Provider To Speed Up San Francisco Fiber Deployment
By 6.23.16
Building out a new fiberoptic network in a congested metropolitan area can be slow-going, which is why when Google announced in February that it was bringing Google Fiber to San Francisco, it planned to do so on the back of existing “dark fiber” lines controlled by the city. In an apparent effort to expand that model to privately-operated networks, Google has acquired a small, high-speed broadband provider already operating in San Francisco. [More]
Google Fiber Copies Comcast, AT&T; Forces Users To Give Up Their Legal Right To Sue
By 6.16.16
Since its introduction in Kansas City, Google Fiber has presented itself as a disruptive force in the pay-TV and internet markets, offering high speeds for reasonable prices, and bringing new competition to markets generally dominated by a single provider. So it’s disappointing to learn that Fiber has decided to follow in the footsteps of AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, Time Warner Cable, and other reviled providers by quietly stripping its customers of their right to sue the company in a court of law. [More]
Google Fiber Might Take Broadband Battle To AT&T’s Home Turf
By 6.14.16
While Google Fiber is going up against AT&T in a number of markets — including Kansas City, Austin, and Atlanta — it has yet to venture into the Death Star’s home turf of Dallas. However, this morning Google announced that Dallas has been added to the list of possible Fiber markets. [More]
Google Drops Free Fiber Option In Kansas City
By 4.11.16
Ever since Google began providing the residents in Kansas City the option of signing on for its Fiber service in 2011, the tech company has offered a hard-to-refuse deal: pay a one-time installation fee, and you get internet access for free – in some cases up to seven years. But it looks like the almost-free ride is over. [More]
Google Fiber Finally Adds “Fiber Phone” Service For $10/Month
By 3.29.16
In the handful of markets where Google Fiber exists, it’s offered high-speed broadband and pay-TV service to compete with the existing cable companies. One thing Google hasn’t offered that the incumbent providers have is landline phone service, but that’s changing with the rollout of “Fiber Phone,” which will also let you field calls on your cellphone. [More]
Thanks To Google Fiber And AT&T, Comcast Gigabit Service Will Only Cost $70 In Atlanta
By 3.15.16
Earlier this year, Comcast announced that Atlanta would be one of the five markets to get a taste of new broadband technology that provides fiberoptic-level data speeds over existing cable lines. And while the cable company has previously charged exceedingly high amounts for high-speed fiber access, Comcast says it will only be charging $70/month in Atlanta for this new service. [More]
AT&T Sues Louisville To Make City Less Attractive To Google Fiber
By 2.26.16
Google hasn’t even decided whether or not it will bring its high-speed Fiber broadband and TV service to Louisville. The Kentucky city is currently listed as merely a “potential” Fiber market. But that hasn’t stopped AT&T from suing Louisville administrators in an effort to make sure that Google will have a tougher time if it chooses to launch there. [More]
Why Comcast Is Wrong To Shrug Off Latest Google Fiber Announcements
By 2.25.16
Google made two important announcements this week about upcoming Google Fiber launches in San Francisco and Huntsville, AL, indicating its willingness to be flexible about how it deploys high-speed broadband service to new markets. Given that Comcast is the dominant ISP in both of these markets, you’d expect it to be worried, but the cable colossus is shrugging off Google’s encroachment. It shouldn’t. [More]
Google Fiber Finally Coming To At Least Some People In San Francisco
By 2.24.16
While Google is based in the San Francisco Bay area, the closest the Internet biggie has come to bringing Google Fiber to the region is listing San Jose as a “potential” Fiber market for the future. But today, Google announced that at least some people in San Francisco will be able to get its high-speed data service. [More]
Google Fiber Coming To Huntsville In Public-Private Partnership
By 2.22.16
In most of the cities where Google Fiber exists (or is in the process of being built out), the company is starting from nothing — digging trenches, running new fiberoptic cable — but Google announced today that when it launches Fiber service in Huntsville, AL, it will be doing so over Rocket City’s municipal fiber network. [More]
Small Massachusetts Town Offers Gigabit Internet For $75/Month
By 12.15.15
As Comcast rolls out its superfast 2 gigabit fiber service for $300/month — not to mention upwards of $1,000 in startup costs — yet another municipally owned broadband service is offering similar service for less money. [More]
AT&T Expands High-Speed Fiber Network, Still Overcharges In Areas Without Competition
By 11.9.15
Remember how AT&T made its grand case for the DirecTV merger? All that revenue from the 20-plus million DirecTV subscribers would help AT&T build out a high-speed broadband network that competes with the local cable monopolies. And so far that’s been true with the continued expansion of AT&T’s GigaPower service… except when those established cable monopolies don’t match GigaPower’s top speeds, customers are still paying top dollar. [More]
Shortlist Of Future Google Fiber Cities Keeps Getting Longer, Three More Cities Added
By 10.29.15
Broadband competition in the U.S. still stinks almost everywhere and most of us are nowhere near gigabit connections. Google, of course, is the biggest — or at least, most popular — name out there trying to change both those things at once, and they’ve announced another three locales where they might plop fiber down if all goes well. [More]
Google Fiber Sends You Flowers, Hopes You’ll Break Up With Cable Company
By 10.19.15
While Google Fiber may not be the fastest kid on the block anymore, it’s still faster than most Internet providers and it doesn’t have a long history of making you feel bad just for being a customer. And it knows how to woo, delivering flowers to potential customers in the hope that they will be wooed into a fling with Google. [More]
Chattanooga Introduces Internet 10X Faster Than Google Fiber, Same Price As Slower Comcast Service
By 10.16.15
While Nashville residents await the introduction of Google Fiber, their fellow Tennesseans a couple hours away in Chattanooga will be getting access (if they can afford it) to broadband that’s ten times faster than Google’s top-speed. [More]
