Google intends to fiber Silicon Valley

[Guest]

Interesting article in Ars Technica:

http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/02 ... expansion/

Google said it "genuinely would like to build in all of these cities," but that the complexities of deploying networks may not allow it. "During this process, we will work with each city to map out in detail what it would look like to build a new fiber-optic network there," Google said. "The most important part of this teamwork will be identifying what obstacles might pop up during network construction—and then working together to find the smoothest path around those obstacles. Some might be easy, some might take some creative thinking or a few months to iron out, and in some cases there might be such local complexities that we decide it’s not the right time to build Google Fiber there."

The 34 cities being considered are Phoenix, Scottsdale, and Tempe in Arizona; San Jose, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, and Palo Alto in California; Atlanta, Avondale Estates, Brookhaven, College Park, Decatur, East Point, Hapeville, Sandy Springs, and Smyrna in Georgia; Nashville-Davidson in Tennessee; Charlotte, Carrboro, Cary, Chapel Hill, Durham, Garner, Morrisville, and Raleigh in North Carolina; Portland, Beaverton, Hillsboro, Gresham, Lake Oswego, and Tigard in Oregon; San Antonio in Texas; and Salt Lake City in Utah.

[Guest]

An interesting choice in Palo Alto. That's right next to the Google Fiber pilot in Stanford, which if I recall correctly was actually administered by Sonic.

On the other hand I remain highly skeptical; fiber has failed to take hold in Palo Alto despite nearly two decades of continual trying, and has been written off on several recent occasions as simply impossible given market conditions.

[justeps]

So, basically, between Google Fiber and Verizon FiOS, nearly every major technology center in the U.S. is poised to enjoy reliable, affordable, and decently fast residential connectivity. The notable exception would be [NIMBY stronghold] San Francisco, which will remain hobbled with third-world Internet speeds, and the worst customer service the AT&T-Comcast duopoly can muster.

Grumble.

[Bill in Palo Alto]

Sonic, Please beat Google to Palo Alto!!!!

My recollection is that one of the reasons that Palo Alto had not moved forward with their own fiber that they installed about 13 years ago was in part due to the fear of lawsuits from Comcast and other cable/TV players. They were ahead of their time in getting the fiber in but saw other cities trying to do the same thing face huge lawsuits that even if they won could end up being economically crippling. Palo Alto HAD high-speed internet through its Cable Co-op (which also had pretty good tv at the time) but it sold out to AT&T in 2000 who then sold the existing cable infrastructure to Comcast and it has been down hill ever since (I was only getting 3Mbs, but back then that was a HUGE pipe).

Somebody is going to come into Palo Alto and take over the the existing fiber. I sure hope it is Sonic

(there are many notes posted to the above ArsTechnica article which points out that Sonic is the best existing option in Silicon Valley. I hope that it continues that way)

[Guest]

Sonic, Please beat Google to Palo Alto!!!!

My recollection is that one of the reasons that Palo Alto had not moved forward with their own fiber that they installed about 13 years ago was in part due to the fear of lawsuits from Comcast and other cable/TV players. They were ahead of their time in getting the fiber in but saw other cities trying to do the same thing face huge lawsuits that even if they won could end up being economically crippling. Palo Alto HAD high-speed internet through its Cable Co-op (which also had pretty good tv at the time) but it sold out to AT&T in 2000 who then sold the existing cable infrastructure to Comcast and it has been down hill ever since (I was only getting 3Mbs, but back then that was a HUGE pipe).

Somebody is going to come into Palo Alto and take over the the existing fiber. I sure hope it is Sonic

(there are many notes posted to the above ArsTechnica article which points out that Sonic is the best existing option in Silicon Valley. I hope that it continues that way)

IMO it would be more important for Sonic to fiber San Francisco and the northern part of the Peninsula instead. It's harder to compete w/ Google than to simply take the markets it won't reach.

[Guest]

I agree that Sonic should stick to its current plans and not be tempted to "compete" with Google. I don't want Sonic to bite off more than it can chew and then become debt-ridden and forced to sell or who-knows-what. I'm a bit torn if Google ever comes to my city. Do I stick with Sonic or go with Google? I really like Sonic and want them to succeed even though my speed is something less than what I desire. The up side is my ADSL1 6Mbps connection has been reliable and has gone down for maybe a total of 2 hours for the past 2.5 years. Who am I kidding? I won't have to worry about Google coming to my city for a long, long time. I do know that I would choose Sonic fiber over Google fiber, even if Sonic fiber is asymmetric.

[exile]

I think it makes most sense to have Sonic fiber where Google isn't and visa versa. That brings fiber to more people than having duplicate service to some areas and no service to others. I think this fits with Google purpose for being in the fiber business too. I don't think they are really interested in muscling in on AT&T and Comcast. They just want more people to have high bandwidth connections to their services and the big two aren't doing the job.

[digitalbitstream]

There are more possible horses in this race:

4G/Cellular
Fibre to local area wireless.

The use of 4G/cellular seems to come and go. Nobody's really made a recent push for wireless from the pole (perhaps since metricom's richochet). Satellite internet is still out there also, and available to all of the same locations with crummy wireline options.

[kfritz]

If they do bring fiber to Mountain View, I hope it works better than their "free" WiFi.

[Guest]

If they do bring fiber to Mountain View, I hope it works better than their "free" WiFi.

The wifi they're going to take down if the City Council approves it tomorrow. I honestly don't get it when people try to use it as their primary connection...

On the other hand, Fiber is designed to be the primary connection of a house. With that said though, Google would also install a partial replacement wifi system in downtown Mountain View only if the Council gives its approval tomorrow.