Google Fiber

[rodi]

Just got notification that San Diego is on a list of cities they're considering doing Google Fiber at.

On one hand I'm excited - super-duper-mega-bandwidth!!! Woot Woot!!!

On the other hand- a bigger bill than my beaten down to bare bones internet cable/solution.

I currently have "start tv" (very basic cable - all in standard def). I also have "standard internet" - 5 meg down, 1 meg up (on average.... but not that good during the early evening.)

I pay $45 for this. In January they are encrypting everything so I'll have to pay $2.50 more for a cable card for my tivo (and will only have OTA on the other tv's.)

Fortunately, we've got direct line of site to the tv antennas so OTA is good for network channels.

Google Fiber will be $130 for the 1Gig + tv.
If I just get internet it's $70/month.

The plus is that my kids would stop telling me I need to upgrade the internet. (To which I reply - get a job and move out if you want to pay the bills. LOL.)

Anyone here have google fiber?

 

[braumeister]

I pay $55 for 30/5 internet, and it meets all my needs nicely.

Would that very high speed be really meaningful to you?

 

[rodi]

I pay $55 for 30/5 internet, and it meets all my needs nicely.

Would that very high speed be really meaningful to you?

Probably not enough to justify the price.

Once fiber arrives in the area (if it does) they also have a "free" mode - you buy their network connector/router - and get free internet at 5/1 forever. That's a better price point.

 

[ejman]

I thought you were talking about a new breakfast cereal...

 

[W2R]

I currently have "start tv" (very basic cable - all in standard def). I also have "standard internet" - 5 meg down, 1 meg up (on average.... but not that good during the early evening.)

I pay $45 for this.

Rodi, I'm paying $67 for mid-level internet only. I think the deal that you presently have with basic cable TV and internet for $45 is just mind-bogglingly good.

I don't think we have Google fiber here but I would sure welcome some competition. Maybe a price war? Ah, what a great fantasy.

 

[FUEGO]

We're getting it pretty soon here in Raleigh. I think there is a free Google Fiber plan that includes 5mb down and 1 mb up or something like that. Only catch is that you have to pay $300 up front to have them lay fiber in your yard and presumably the fiber modem for your house. They promise free service for a period (7 years I think?).

So maybe you'll be fine with the free service, though I don't think it's quite enough to run HD netflix and other streaming stuff that people tend to do these days. IIRC netflix in HD needs 5mb bandwidth on its own (though I'd love to hear others experiences since I'm considering dropping down to 5 mb service for free).

 

[hnzw_rui]

So maybe you'll be fine with the free service, though I don't think it's quite enough to run HD netflix and other streaming stuff that people tend to do these days. IIRC netflix in HD needs 5mb bandwidth on its own (though I'd love to hear others experiences since I'm considering dropping down to 5 mb service for free).

Depends on your definition of HD. You can get 720p for 1.5-3Mbps. Full HD 1080p is around 5+Mbps, iirc. If you have other people in the house streaming video at the same time, though (e.g. on mobile devices or computers), 5Mbps is going to feel very limited indeed.

 

[rodi]

We have 5mbit down now. Netflix and Amazon streaming sometimes buffer - but I get it in HD. We don't have any issues if the kids are doing online stuff like minecraft - but older son is obsessed with youtube videos - and we have to kick him off if we get too much buffering.

W2R - you can see whether they are considering your area (and express interest in it) here:
https://fiber.google.com/newcities/

I signed up (expressed interest) when it first rolled out in Kansas City. That was when I was still paying almost as much for crappy internet and tv. Signing up resulted in yesterday's email.

They seem to be targeting tech centers. Irvine (broadcom) and San Diego (Qualcomm) were announced yesterday.

 

[rodi]

Rodi, I'm paying $67 for mid-level internet only. I think the deal that you presently have with basic cable TV and internet for $45 is just mind-bogglingly good.

Mid-level internet here (San Diego Time Warner) is $55/month plus all the fees/taxes... so about the same. I'm on the lowest internet. With the lowest internet and what I had thought was the lowest tv (advanced basic) I was paying $120/month. That's when I tried to cancel and found out about the unadvertised (at the time) "starter tv" level. I agree - $45/month - inclusive of all the taxes/fees - for tv and cable is a screaming deal.

I'm thinking more and more about the $300 1-time investment for 7 years of "free" internet at the same speed I currently have. I could always upgrade to the 1 gig later if it's inadequate. Of course it will be years before it's actually here in San Diego.

 

[FUEGO]

We have 5mbit down now. Netflix and Amazon streaming sometimes buffer - but I get it in HD. We don't have any issues if the kids are doing online stuff like minecraft - but older son is obsessed with youtube videos - and we have to kick him off if we get too much buffering.

That's what I'm afraid of. We have 3 kids and they are into online videos (youtube/netflix, etc) too. With tons of electronic devices floating around our house (tablets, phones, laptops, desktops, HD TVs, etc), it's pretty easy for 3-4 streams to be going at once. I even caught one kid watching two youtube videos simultaneously (in HD; and WTF, by the way).

We're fortunate to pay $30-35/month for Time Warner internet (over cable) at 15-20 mb down and 1 mb up, so it works fine for us now. I'm not sure it's worth it to downgrade to the free google fiber plan just to save $400/yr if it means fighting over bandwidth (or me secretly implementing QoS on the router to prioritize my own devices' MAC addresses over those of my wife and children - "No, mine's not buffering... IDK what's wrong!" Bwahahahaha)

 

[FUEGO]

Depends on your definition of HD. You can get 720p for 1.5-3Mbps. Full HD 1080p is around 5+Mbps, iirc. If you have other people in the house streaming video at the same time, though (e.g. on mobile devices or computers), 5Mbps is going to feel very limited indeed.

We're usually watching in 1080p so ideally 5 mb is what we need. Thinking ahead, I wonder if 4k tv will need 20 mpbs bandwidth? That 1 gb google fiber connection at $70/month might start looking pretty tasty when I get a 4k tv in 5-10 years.

 

[MichaelB]

Serious envy, Rodi. I'd pay the $130 just for the pleasure of calling my current provider and telling them to ... well, you know what I mean. It'll probably be addicting, though. Once you taste gigabit, megabit may never again be an option.

One thing that's bound to disappoint - this will not stop your kids from nagging you. They'll just change the target.

 

[FUEGO]

One thing that's bound to disappoint - this will not stop your kids from nagging you. They'll just change the target.

With gigabit, they can then post 4k videos to facetwittergramtube complaining about how much their parents suck for not getting them something else super duper awesome.

 

[cathy63]

I also got the "fiber is coming to San Diego" email yesterday. I definitely signed up with my home ZIP code, which is in Coronado, not the city of San Diego, so I was surprised. I am hoping they either mean San Diego County, or they're including Coronado anyway. I'd love to ditch TWC for Internet, but I want to know a lot more about Google TV before I get rid of my TiVos.

 

[rodi]

I'd love to ditch TWC for Internet, but I want to know a lot more about Google TV before I get rid of my TiVos.

I hear you on the Tivo issue. Longtime tivo user here and LOVE the interface. It's the only thing keeping me from bouncing back and forth between TWC and Uverse every year to constantly get "introductory prices"... Uverse isn't cablecard compatible and requires their settop. Too bad the FCC cablecard requirements don't apply to "telcos"... so uverse (att) and fios (verizon) don't have to comply.

 

[JoeWras]

I also got the "fiber is coming to San Diego" email yesterday. I definitely signed up with my home ZIP code, which is in Coronado, not the city of San Diego, so I was surprised. I am hoping they either mean San Diego County, or they're including Coronado anyway. I'd love to ditch TWC for Internet, but I want to know a lot more about Google TV before I get rid of my TiVos.

You'll likely have plenty of time. Google announced in Raleigh last spring and only now are you seeing a few Ditch Witches out by one of their proposed huts, with no hut construction in sight. This is miles from my house. I'd be surprised to see it in the next 3 years.

 

[MBAustin]

Don't get too excited. It was announced in Austin nearly 2 years ago and is still only available for signups in a relatively small area south of downtown. It is a VERY long build-out process.

 

[target2019]

Finally made it to Austin. Coincidentally the apartment we're in had Google fiber installed very recently. We're on South 5th Street.

 

[Dreaming of Freedom]

I have the free version of Google Fiber in Kansas City. I had to pay $300 to get connected, but that included the modem. It is 5/1 down/up like the others say, though I have had a little bit better service than that when I did some speed tests. It is supposed to be free for 7 years. We almost never stream movies or TV, just You Tube videos, it seems to work good. There are only two of us, and we are not addicted to TV, movies, video games, or online videos, so we might not be the best metric. But Google has been good to work with.

Sent from my EVO using Early Retirement Forum mobile app

 

[2017ish]

Like Raleigh, it was announced in January for Nashville. Slowly progressing; don't know if anyone actually has it operating yet.

At the indeterminate time that we sell our house/land just outside of the City, our move to the urban core will definitely include a very high speed connection as a location criterion. Google would likely be our preference, but (unsurprisingly) ATT and Comcast are both joining the gigabit connection fray here.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

I have the free version of Google Fiber in Kansas City. I had to pay $300 to get connected, but that included the modem. It is 5/1 down/up like the others say, though I have had a little bit better service than that when I did some speed tests. It is supposed to be free for 7 years. We almost never stream movies or TV, just You Tube videos, it seems to work good. There are only two of us, and we are not addicted to TV, movies, video games, or online videos, so we might not be the best metric. But Google has been good to work with.

Sent from my EVO using Early Retirement Forum mobile app

It's great that it's "free" for 7 years, but 5/1 speeds really aren't going to cut it for that long. We have 20/5 with AT&T and we are already having issues with some stuff. Most of my complaints are because of websites that are being more and more bogged down with scripts/codes/java/more/more/more crap that take way too long to load. I used to LOVE the "mobile" pages on my phone, but those too are now getting bogged down. AND...this is all while using Ad Block plus...I can't imagine how terrible it would be to try and run a "naked" news site on a 5/1 connection.

 

[KarenC]

Don't get too excited. It was announced in Austin nearly 2 years ago and is still only available for signups in a relatively small area south of downtown. It is a VERY long build-out process.

As a south Austin resident, I can confirm that. I signed up over a year ago, got really excited when they installed the jack about 9 months ago, and I'm still waiting.


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[steelyman]

The effects of this are now (yes, now) being seen in the Triangle area in NC (that includes Raleigh).

Time Warner is bumping speeds at no extra cost to areas where it is being rolled out (e.g., the "Standard" 15 Mbs service goes up to 50 Mbps).

This is competition spurred by Google Fiber. I believe it was first announced in Charlotte.

I am curious to learn from someone who actually knows what they're talking about (a networking professional) what physical media changes are going on to make this happen. "Fiber" on its own is a pretty mass-market sort of word, or at least seems to be used that way, and "Google" on its own conjures up a certain mystique for average consumers like me.

 

[rodi]

I am curious to learn from someone who actually knows what they're talking about (a networking professional) what physical media changes are going on to make this happen. "Fiber" on its own is a pretty mass-market sort of word, or at least seems to be used that way, and "Google" on its own conjures up a certain mystique for average consumers like me.

Time Warner, Comcast, Cox, etc.. typically have 'hybrid fiber coax' (aka HFC) in older neighborhoods. That means fiber to the neighborhood - or possibly the pole... then coaxial cable the home. New build neighborhoods often have fiber to the home. So they can claim "fiber" - but it's only fiber part of the way.

My understanding is google is doing a complete "overbuild" - laying new fiber to every home in the areas they are rolling out. They are also making sure their network infrastructure is set up to handle the capacity.

FWIW - I worked for a cable/fios/uverse supplier for a few decades, but not in the "plant" side, rather on the settop boxes. But I went to enough meetings to know some of the infrastructure/plant issues.

 

[JoeWras]

The effects of this are now (yes, now) being seen in the Triangle area in NC (that includes Raleigh).

Time Warner is bumping speeds at no extra cost to areas where it is being rolled out (e.g., the "Standard" 15 Mbs service goes up to 50 Mbps).

This is competition spurred by Google Fiber. I believe it was first announced in Charlotte.

I am curious to learn from someone who actually knows what they're talking about (a networking professional) what physical media changes are going on to make this happen. "Fiber" on its own is a pretty mass-market sort of word, or at least seems to be used that way, and "Google" on its own conjures up a certain mystique for average consumers like me.

TWC has converted to DOCSIS 3.1, so they can jack up speeds on the cable. The physical medium, along with DOCSIS protocol, is enough to reach pretty high speeds. The problem TWC has, however, is they also have to upgrade their back office to handle the speeds. Most of that work will be site unseen to us.

Google Fiber is actually laying fiber. Right now, they are doing a lot of work in Morrisville. The contractor is using horizontal drilling machines to snake conduit everywhere. This is very expensive. They are also going in select neighborhoods and running loops at the curb, which will eventually be connected to houses. Yes, it will be actual fiber to the house. But this is going to take a while. Google will also have what they call "huts" to hold the equipment for the fiber network. These will be shed sized boxes at selected areas in the Triangle. There won't be a need for too many of them.

AT&T Uverse runs fiber to a neighborhood and then terminates to the house with a twisted pair or two of copper. This is old tech. The copper may be 50+ years old. They won't be able to get above about 50Mbps with this tech.

However, AT&T is also feeling the heat and is laying more fiber too. They are extending certain neighborhood loops. To me, it looks like these guys are jumping into neighborhoods where Google Fiber is not yet making waves. Looks like they will try to grab customers first. The AT&T product will be called Uverse with Gigapower. More marking mumbo jumbo. People will be confused because all Uverse's won't be the same.