Google Fiber

[jbrandon]

Just before Christmas we received notice we would be having Google Fiber installed in our neighborhood (Gladstone, MO, just north of Kansas City). Stated looking around to get more information about the network, features, speeds, adaptors, etc.

Decided to make a trip to the GF store in Kansas City. I must say I am impressed with not only the speed of the Internet access (any speed test you wish to run gives better than 800mbs). My home SageTV server usually takes anywhere from 5-15 seconds to open, opens in a fraction of a second, no waiting. Put in the user name and password and as they say in England," Bob's your uncle" up it pops. And any other Internet site just pops up right now, period, bang, it is done!!

The network box is small, I'd guess about 10x10x2, the storage box is about 10x10x2 the set top box is extremely small, about 6x5x1. I took my girlfriend with me to get her approval. She is a hard to please when it comes to TV boxes, the main reason we have none at present with Time Warner. Now she is excited and was asking when!! The set top box is even smaller than the Foxcon computers we are using for SageTV currently.

I was a little taken aback by the only 2TB of local storage with an additional 1TB using Google Drive. I currently have 5TB of storage with about 2.7TB in use at any one time. This includes about 800 music albums and a ton of pictures. But thinking about it I use intelligent recording and SageTV records many movies which I usually delete without watching so looking at my over all disk usage I find I am using slightly less than 1TB for recorded TV shows not counting movies, and maybe another .8TB for music and pictures.

If you live in one of the cities where GF is invading you really owe it to yourself to visit their store. I found the staff very knowledgeable about just about everything, they even knew that SageTV was the root of their DVR. They ask if I would miss using SageTV and of course I will.

Now all I need is a time machine to go forward to April...

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by jbrandon

I found the staff very knowledgeable about just about everything, they even knew that SageTV was the root of their DVR.

They probably all know about it from being harassed by Brent.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by jbrandon

Just before Christmas we received notice we would be having Google Fiber installed in our neighborhood (Gladstone, MO, just north of Kansas City). Stated looking around to get more information about the network, features, speeds, adaptors, etc.

Decided to make a trip to the GF store in Kansas City. I must say I am impressed with not only the speed of the Internet access (any speed test you wish to run gives better than 800mbs). My home SageTV server usually takes anywhere from 5-15 seconds to open, opens in a fraction of a second, no waiting. Put in the user name and password and as they say in England," Bob's your uncle" up it pops. And any other Internet site just pops up right now, period, bang, it is done!!

The network box is small, I'd guess about 10x10x2, the storage box is about 10x10x2 the set top box is extremely small, about 6x5x1. I took my girlfriend with me to get her approval. She is a hard to please when it comes to TV boxes, the main reason we have none at present with Time Warner. Now she is excited and was asking when!! The set top box is even smaller than the Foxcon computers we are using for SageTV currently.

I was a little taken aback by the only 2TB of local storage with an additional 1TB using Google Drive. I currently have 5TB of storage with about 2.7TB in use at any one time. This includes about 800 music albums and a ton of pictures. But thinking about it I use intelligent recording and SageTV records many movies which I usually delete without watching so looking at my over all disk usage I find I am using slightly less than 1TB for recorded TV shows not counting movies, and maybe another .8TB for music and pictures.

If you live in one of the cities where GF is invading you really owe it to yourself to visit their store. I found the staff very knowledgeable about just about everything, they even knew that SageTV was the root of their DVR. They ask if I would miss using SageTV and of course I will.

Now all I need is a time machine to go forward to April...

I don't think anyone subscribed to this forum would really need to visit the store, if it was available, we'd all sign up. However - that's just never going to be an option.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

They probably all know about it from being harassed by Brent.

quite possible.

[nebulink]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

I don't think anyone subscribed to this forum would really need to visit the store, if it was available, we'd all sign up. However - that's just never going to be an option.

Agreed! I would love the service but it is unlikely that it will ever arrive in my area.

[flavius]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

I don't think anyone subscribed to this forum would really need to visit the store, if it was available, we'd all sign up. However - that's just never going to be an option.

I'll take Google Fiber over DSL (which I can't get) any day!

[SWKerr]

Originally Posted by nebulink

Agreed! I would love the service but it is unlikely that it will ever arrive in my area.

I am still dreaming of cable. I can only get DSL.

I live on a golf course and Time Warner is all around me but they will only run it down my street for $18,000. Even more annoying I can go to there site and it says I am in a covered area but once I signed up they call me back and say I can't have it. (10 houses is not enough for a freebie setup)

Cable companies operate in de facto monopolies and without competition like from Google Fiber they will not invest to improve service and will squeeze you for every dime they can get. The infrastructure costs to move into an area already served by a cable company is to high considering the number of converts you are likely to get. . (That is why Verizon stopped expanding Fiber)

Maybe Google will shame a few areas into expanding Fiber but until the government starts regulating the industry it will not change much and you should be thankful you get any type of broad band improvement. Our elected officials seem to think wireless broadband will save the day but they must not pay their own cell phones bills or just have never watched a YouTube video.

[wayner]

The recent Net Neutrality ruling should keep Google's interest in Google Fiber alive longer since that puts them at risk. If there is a threat that they will roll out Google Fiber across the US it may keep the cable and tel cos in line.

By the way, the US is really falling behind in both price and broadband speed. I thought we had it bad here in Canada but we are way better than the US. I pay about C$110 (which is currently about US$100) per month for 250/20 service with a cap of 1TB/month. That is expensive but it is kind of a super-premium product that I am getting.

Check out this graphic from the OECD on global broadband speeds and prices. But something seems weird with this since I can't believe that the average in Canada was 45 mbps 2.5 years ago and the same with 29 mbps for the US.
http://image.slidesharecdn.com/broad...ide-1-1024.jpg

[Brent]

Update:
I'm very fortunate as I live in the first city to get Google Fiber. I'm also in the very first group where Google Fiber is experimenting on how to run fiber through the area and install in an urban environment. The bad part of being that first guinea pig is my install is going pretty slow. They started with a fairly slow rollout, neighborhood by neighborhood and I also happen to live in one of the oldest parts of town in a multi-tenant building. That means dealing with old utilities (that caused one of the delays for me) and dealing with multi-tenant buildings has really been a learning experience for them as well.

Tomorrow the GF folks are going unit-to-unit to check the fiber lines throughout the building to be sure they are up to their requirements. If all goes well, next I'll get an e-mail invite (finally) to schedule my in-home install. That will involve running the fiber from my entryway to my network box and then making sure my two TV boxes and storage/network box all work as expected. Once that happens I will (I promise) give a full report for those that still are interested.

Now for those who are scratching their heads wondering how in the world will they EVER get to other cities if it's taking this long to get measly little Kansas City up and running . From what I can tell, their first groups in the core of Kansas City (including me) were the experiments so they could learn what to do and what NOT to do. I'm hearing reports that all across the suburbs of Kansas City on the Missouri side, fiber has already been run or is being run depending on the location. I expect they will install 100 times as many (or more) in year two as they did in year one. Provo and Austin will go much faster from the get-go as well. The thing you'll want to listen for is when Google starts bragging about conversion numbers from other cable companies. If they convert 30% or more (should be much more than that honestly) and they are able to justify the cost, watch for them to announce more cities. That's my take at least.

More:
I have learned from those already using Google Fiber TV of some good and bad feedback. I'll share some of that soon.

[wayner]

Thanks for the update Brent. I really can't understand why anyone wouldn't get Google Fiber with the exception of being worried about Google's overarching presence. But presumably Google can't sniff your data (unless the NSA wants them too), can they?

[Brent]

Originally Posted by wayner

Thanks for the update Brent. I really can't understand why anyone wouldn't get Google Fiber with the exception of being worried about Google's overarching presence. But presumably Google can't sniff your data (unless the NSA wants them too), can they?

There are a few reasons why one wouldn't choose to get google fiber:
1. They don't offer the channels wanted. In KC they still don't offer AMC channel. Also don't yet have many on-demand offerings TWC and others have.
2. You live in a multi-tenant building that didn't want to invest the initial cost per unit to get Google Fiber. This is especially common in rentals where the landlord is an idiot or just doesn't see the value in spending any money on such things.
3. You worry about the privacy thing as mentioned by wayner above. I don't think this will be all that common as a reason not to do it but I could be wrong I guess.

There are probably other reasons I'm not thinking of.

Sidenote: I'm still a little surprised we haven't seen a standalone version of Google Fiber TV sans GF. Maybe Google is just counting on the CATV kind of channels to lose steam so fast that it won't matter, but it seems like it would sell without needing to do too much in the way of investment.

[toony]

Originally Posted by wayner

The recent Net Neutrality ruling should keep Google's interest in Google Fiber alive longer since that puts them at risk. If there is a threat that they will roll out Google Fiber across the US it may keep the cable and tel cos in line.

By the way, the US is really falling behind in both price and broadband speed. I thought we had it bad here in Canada but we are way better than the US. I pay about C$110 (which is currently about US$100) per month for 250/20 service with a cap of 1TB/month. That is expensive but it is kind of a super-premium product that I am getting.

Holy crap your in Toronto! I thought I was the only one on Sage here!

[KryptoNyte]

I wonder what the largest major city is, closest to the geographic center of the United States.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

I wonder what the largest major city is, closest to the geographic center of the United States.

I know


center of the contiguous United States at least.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by toony

Holy crap your in Toronto! I thought I was the only one on Sage here!

Some of the top developers here are nearby - Slugger is in Kingston and Stuckless is in London, ON. I am pretty sure there are others around as well.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by Brent

1. They don't offer the channels wanted. In KC they still don't offer AMC channel. Also don't yet have many on-demand offerings TWC and others have.

Even if they didn't offer TV and you paid $110 for internet only that is still a bargain for bidirectional 1 Gbps service with no cap.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by wayner

Even if they didn't offer TV and you paid $110 for internet only that is still a bargain for bidirectional 1 Gbps service with no cap.

Absolutely! But there are some who just don't have the cash - even that much cash to do it. And the free option is a really good deal too, but there is a $300 start-up fee that makes it tough for the really poor - lots of those in some of the initial neighborhoods they started in.

All-in-all though it's a bargain for anyone already paying for cable or internet. I would guess in many neighborhoods the conversion rate will be or already is over 50%.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by wayner

Even if they didn't offer TV and you paid $110 for internet only that is still a bargain for bidirectional 1 Gbps service with no cap.

It's only a bargain if you will use more than the $45/month 30Mbps cable service. $110 is a huge jump up in price for a service most users simply don't need. It doesn't take much (hardware wise) for CableCo's to up their DOCSIS 3 systems up to 120Mbps, which is well more than 99% of the customer base needs for their usage. This is what is going to make it hard for Google to spread into already well served areas. I'm not sure how well served KC, Provo, and Austin are, but I'm guessing if they are getting high conversion rates, it is because the current offerings are very limited - or just plain horrible. I know here in Riverside, GF would have a very hard time pulling customers from the much cheaper, and already established, options (FiOS, UVerse, Charter).

Honestly, if it WAS available, the only reason I'd pay the price for google fiber, is for the SageTV side of it.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

I'm not sure how well served KC, Provo, and Austin are, but I'm guessing if they are getting high conversion rates, it is because the current offerings are very limited - or just plain horrible. I know here in Riverside, GF would have a very hard time pulling customers from the much cheaper, and already established, options (FiOS, UVerse, Charter).

Honestly, if it WAS available, the only reason I'd pay the price for google fiber, is for the SageTV side of it.

Fios is not available. UVerse is available in a few, limited areas but from those that had it, it was pretty poor overall. No Charter. We have TWC mostly and it simply is unreliable and awful.

How much does it cost in Riverside to get a decent upload speed?

[wayner]

But don't forget that the internet only service is $70/month and if you are happy with the TV channels that they have then $110/month for TV+internet is competitively priced with "average" type of internet and the internet service that you are getting here is beyond super-premium.

I believe Google's original intent with this project is to spur new types of products with such ultra fast internet. And with those types of speed then you could use the internet just like you use your LAN, assuming VPN, etc. With everyone wired up with bidirectional 1Gbps service I think the internet would start to become very different, just how we went for an original internet of text based services like email, Archie, Gopher, text only websites; to graphical websites, to downloading of music, to streaming of HD video, to (coming in a couople of months) streaming of 4K video.

For example, with these types of speeds it makes a lot more sense to use cloud backup services since you don't have to worry about speed or data caps. Or you could buy a Virtual Private Server (VPS) service to hold your data.
If you wanted to set up a SageTV service for your parents or friends then you could host it at your house as long as they have Google Fiber as well, or other fast download internet service. They just need extenders or clients.
Or you could use Plex or XBMC in the same way.
If you have a second home/cottage then think of the SageTV experience over the net with those speeds.

With bidirectional, uncapped Gigabit internet you would start to look at the internet very differently.

I am currently paying $100/month for 250/20 1TB service and I think that is a deal. I used to have a 250GB/month cap that was being breached quite often mainly due to streaming of Netflix and Amazon Instant Video.