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Google The Internet

Google Fiber To Launch In Austin, Texas In December 88

Posted by samzenpus from the setting-a-date dept.
retroworks writes WSJ blog reports on Austin, the third city to get fiber-optic high speed internet networks laid down by Google (Kansas City and Provo, UT were the first and second). The service averages 1 gigabit per second, about 100X the average US household speed, and costs $70-120 per month (depending on television). Google promotes the roll-outs by holding "rallies" in small neighborhoods. The sign-up process starts in December, focusing on south and southeastern parts of Austin, a Google spokeswoman said Wednesday. It was announced that fiber was coming to Austin back in April.
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Google Fiber To Launch In Austin, Texas In December More

Google Fiber To Launch In Austin, Texas In December

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  • I live in the Northeast part of Austin... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Dimwit ( 36756 ) on Thursday October 16, 2014 @10:05PM (#48165599)

    ...and I'm never getting fiber internet. Certain parts of the city are completely ignored for infrastructure upgrades. We just spent $10 million putting bicycle repair kits and air pumps in the richer parts of town, while delaying the sewer installation in my part of town (we were annexed by the city in 2007 and were supposed to have sewers hooked up in 2012...it's 2014 and now they're saying they "hope" it'll get done by 2015). We spent another $1-2 million on "sharrows", which are little arrows that go in the roads to show that we should share those lanes with bikes. We also just spent something like $30 million finishing a bicycling bridge over Town Lake.

    In other words, rich people in the south and southwestern parts of town get whatever they want on the taxpayer dime while people in the north and east have to put up with roads without sidewalks, failing sewer systems, and lackluster police protection. Yay.

    • I live in southwest Austin. You know, the part where Google Fiber ISN'T being built out. Maybe it has more to do with density and demand than with haves and have nots.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by TWX ( 665546 )
        Demand density is almost certainly a factor. In the mid-nineties I was in one of the first neighborhoods in the US to see widespread cablemodem adoption. It was a dead-center middle-class neighborhood with properties that also weren't too physically large, so that the number of subscribers per square mile made it cost effective to roll-out the network changes needed for it.

        Now magnify that 100x for brand-new fiber. They probably aren't using existing dark fiber since it's owned by others, unless they'

    • If you're in the part of northeast Austin where the tech companies are, I'd think Google would want to get those areas done fairly early. Technology professionals will use fast internet and spend money online. The city government may not give a shit, but I'd expect Google to start with the densest concentrations of good customers.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Megane ( 129182 )
        And I'm in northwest Austin near 183/620, so I share your pain. There's quite a few tech companies along Parmer in general. The dots on the map (with a few exceptions that may be the "special" places they wired like libraries, etc.) stop at 38th and Mopac, except for the Mueller area. I'm actually kind of surprised how they put so many blue dots east of 35, but then I guess the hipsters have been gentrifying the poor out of the east side lately. Lots of blue dots in downtown, too.

    • Re:I live in the Northeast part of Austin... (Score:4, Informative)

      by buddyglass ( 925859 ) on Friday October 17, 2014 @12:09AM (#48166131)
      Check out the map [google.com] of drops. Westlake, Tarrytown and Northwest Hills (between Mopac and 360) were completely skipped.
    • Well-chosen slashdot nickname, Dimwit.

      All the public infrastructure crap you're complaining about was part of bond packages that voters approved and paid for with tax money.

      Google fiber ain't that. It's a subscription service being provided by a corporation. The fact that you're complaining of not having sewers hooked up indicates you live in a rural section which isn't the most lucrative region for Google to spend money where the people / mile-of-fiber ratio is thin.
    • Even as somebody who doesn't have a car and cycles just about everywhere, I find that spending $10 million dollars on bike repair stands to be ridiculous. First, if I get a flat, I don't want to walk even 500 meters to get to the repair stand, because that would take 8 minutes or so, by which time I could almost be done fixing the tire with the tools I bring with me. And it's not likely that they are going to have a repair stand every 500 meters. A high estimate of what it would cost to supply yourself
    • Dang! I see what you're talking about. They have completely skipped north Mopac and Northwest Hills?? I don't see any of these Drops near my apartment at all. What does a drop mean, technically anyways..?

    • I feel for you, dude. I lived in NE Austin for 12 years, but last year I moved to NW Austin. We just got sick and tired of being ignored by the city. I hope the new district plan will improve things for you. My suggestion is that you really pester your district representative as much as you can to improve things.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dwpro ( 520418 )
      South Austinite here. I find it laughable you'd blame us for gobbling up the budget. How's that $105 million commuter rail? I hope it's not too crowded.

  • Living in KC (Score:5, Informative)

    by crazyprogrammer ( 412543 ) on Thursday October 16, 2014 @10:09PM (#48165633) Homepage

    Austin may be the third city to get Google Fiber, but that doesn't mean Kansas City is all up and running. I live in Kansas City and I'm still waiting for my Google Fiber connection to be hooked up. The fiber is now on the utility pole behind my house, but they haven't run the fiber to my house yet. A recent email from Google stated that it might be as late as spring 2015 before my neighborhood is hooked up.

    In the mean time, I plan to improve my latency by hiring Lorenzo Cain to run my external HDs to/from whom ever I'm trading files with.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by TWX ( 665546 )
      Fiber work takes time and is very labor-intensive. Even aerial fiber requires effort and planning, and just because your home is spitting-distance to the backbone, that doesn't mean that there aren't still several phases of the project necessary in order to go the last hundred-feet or to light-up that fiber.

      It's possible that the central office or local exchange is still being built. It's possible that the local exchange doesn't have its own backbone to the CO finished yet. It's possible that the CO o

    • Brutal. I live in city #2 (Provo, UT for those not keeping track), and, because I can't really help myself, all I can say is: this post brought to you via Google Fiber.

      Originally, quite a bit of time was spent doing upgrades behind the scenes, then they switched everyone who was on the iProvo network to Google, then they started adding new customers in built-out neighborhoods. I am lucky enough to live in a neighborhood that they switched over relatively early. It looks like they've got quite a ways to g

    • And it will take just as long to get it in Austin. The summary says that this was announced back in April, but it was announced (and the linked story is from) April 2013. It's been 16 months to learn that in two months neighborhoods with the same density as mine, but in another part of town, can sign up for fiber. They'll get it some time after that. It seems unlikely to be before 2017 in my neighborhood now.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Megane ( 129182 )
      Since Google does a "fiberhood" at a time, it may be behind your house, but not behind every house in your neighborhood. Also, if the fiber is a backbone, you don't connect a customer to that. You can't just stick a drop in the middle of a fiber cable. As I understand it, they put priority on neighborhoods with the highest demand and the lowest construction issues.

  • Dear Google... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    ... Canada!

  • Looking forward to the year 2174 A.D. (Score:5, Funny)

    by BenJeremy ( 181303 ) on Thursday October 16, 2014 @10:31PM (#48165725)

    The year they finally get around to having 10% of the country wired for fiber.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Also the year the FCC holds its final hearing on the mythical "net neutrality" that was spoken of in the beforetime, and deciding that the Corporation (there'll only be the one by then) doth not approve, hence it shall not be, amen.

  • nearby, the cable co announced gigabit cheap (Score:5, Insightful)

    by raymorris ( 2726007 ) on Thursday October 16, 2014 @10:50PM (#48165795) Journal

    About two hours from Austin is College Station, where the cable company has long been providing about 10mbps for $70 or so. They just announced this will be the first place their speed will go to 100Mbps for no extra charge, and gigabit will be available for a little more. I'm thinking they noticed Google fiber down the road and figured they better get their act together.

    There hasn't been much real competition until Google fiber - just DSL, at the same slow speed and the same price, but several weeks to get set-up.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by TWX ( 665546 )
      They're full of shit. They're probably oversubscribed already. Sure, one subscriber without others on the line (remember, these are shared-bandwidth networks!) may be able to achieve 100Mbit speeds, or even one in the middle of the dead of night without other users to contend with could hit those speeds even on a shared line, but you're looking at lots of users on a segment. They throttle you to a certain speed because that's the fastest they can give you when utilization is low so that when utilization

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Andrio ( 2580551 )

      This is kind of what happened with webmail when Gmail came out. I remember at the time, in 2004, Hotmail was 2MB of storage and Yahoo was 3MB of storage. As soon as Gmail came out with its 1GB of storage, you saw the others suddenly start offering a lot more storage.

  • I want slower for cheaper (Score:3)

    by EmperorOfCanada ( 1332175 ) on Thursday October 16, 2014 @11:24PM (#48165967)
    I want 10mbs for around $10. Basically I don't need that much for work during the day and Netflix at night. I don't even need that great a ping time.

    Keep in mind that those are the needs of someone who develops software that is heavily network centred. Once in a blue moon when I really need a full iso of a linux distro I might grumble that faster would be better but I am not sure that I would notice the difference 99.9% of the time.

    • Re:I want slower for cheaper (Score:4, Informative)

      by TWX ( 665546 ) on Thursday October 16, 2014 @11:30PM (#48165995)
      If what I read on Google's fiber website is right, they're offering free lower-speed fiber connectivity so long as one pays for the installation cost, around $300. My guess is that if a subscriber likes the free, they'll upgrade to paid 1Gb, if they already have the connection in place.
      • I'll buy that in a second. My pretty shitty service (Eastlink) costs me around $60 a month so in 5 months I would cover the $300. My effective download speed is around 15Mbs but the upload is basically fast morse code and my ping time is often all over the place; enough that I really feel sorry for the gamers.

        Not that GF is coming to Canada but I would celebrate my call to Eastlink to tell them that they won't be getting another cent from me in this lifetime.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Megane ( 129182 )
        Also, if you don't get it when they come around, they aren't bringing the backhoe back when you change your mind later. I think it's worth it to pay $300 for them to wire up your house. By the time they get to my house, I'll probably have moved back to San Antonio and be renting it out, and I'd pay the $300 just to be sure it gets installed to the house.

        • I wonder what being able to say you are wired to google fiber does to the resale value of your home? Being able to advertise google fiber access must be a huge incentive for certain home buyers and I bet you could recoup that $300 instantly just in resale value.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by TWX ( 665546 )
            I don't think that it'll specifically add resale value, but it will make it easier. The more potential connectivity the better as it gives the buyers options.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Durrik ( 80651 )
      oh I'd love 10 mbs. I'm stuck with only one provider where I live. No cable, just CenturyLink DSL. I have the fastest service they offer in this area, a whole 7 mbs. And I get to pay $70 a month for it too. When I called up customer service about it, they seemed shocked that we only got 7 mbs for that amount, and then he looked at what was offered in the area, and apologized because that's all they have. I have a 70 ms ping to the speed test servers. Shows you how bad it is when they don't even care

    • I'm in the same boat. I'm paying $60/mo for what is typically 11-12mbs. I've never found a need to have anything more than that. Sufficient to download games in 1-2 hours, stream Netflix, and do my job (typically involving VPN and a few RDP sessions). I guess going up to 100mbs or gig would be worth it if there were 5 people in the house all trying to stream video and play games at once.

      I'd rather see the low end packages get cheaper than get higher speeds that I have no use for.

  • Commas matter. (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    As written, this headline says that Google fiber is going to launch in Austin, and that Texas is going to launch in December.

    Put the comma after "Texas" too, and you'll have something that's correct.

    • What you're asking for is called the "Oxford Comma," and is considered optional.

      There's a really interesting TED video on the debate about the Oxford Comma, and usage, on TED [ted.com]

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by McKing ( 1017 )

        No. The Oxford Comma specifically refers to a comma between the last two items in a series. "I went to the store for grapes, milk, and bread" versus "I went to the store for grapes, milk and bread".

        The comma between the city name and the state is required; the additional comma after the state is usually needed for clarity when the city and state are used in a sentence.

        • The city and state combo is a list. An example if we extended the list would be: Austin, Texas, United States, and Earth.

          Hence, we're talking about the oxford comma.

  • Privacy Nightmare, no thanks!!! (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Why would anyone want this from Google? Seriously! They will datamine every single unencrypted bit that you send and receive, for life, and sell it to the highest backdoor bidder, including the government, the credit bureaus, and walmart.
    Bet you $100 they require your real name, email address, telephone number, date of birth, and social security number to sign up too.
    Screw that.

  • So which connector do I need to flush to get Google fiber?

  • I live in KC and it's a real pita to find a place with google fiber. Google will only wire up an entire complex at once and they charge the owners a lot of money for it.

    • There's quite a few complexes near where I live that have Google Fiber. It's proudly advertised on various complex's banners.

  • Are they simultaneously expanding elsewhere?
    Are they being blocked by cable companies who know they will lose to any competition?

    They are also deploying weather balloons in extremely poor countries to get people anywhere on the internet.
    At this rate those people will have better internet than most US citizens, and for free.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Megane ( 129182 )
      Cherry picking. Partly they're going for neighborhoods with higher anticipated demand (and higher anticipated density), partly they're going for neighborhoods with physically easier installs. Just remember that when they choose your neighborhood (aka "fiberhood"), if you don't get the install done then, you're pretty much fucked until they pick your neighborhood for again a second chance. My understanding is they generally won't go back for the stragglers and wafflers who didn't sign up when they were doing

  • I get so frustrated reading these kind of articles. We get 3mb for $70/month. That's 3mb with horrible latency and dropped packets. That's 3mb that frequently requires pages to be reloaded in order to complete properly.

    Of course 3mb is a lot better than my first connection which was, and I kid you not, 110kb via an acoustic coupler on a good old fashion TTY. So I guess that makes my complaint a first world problem.

    Oh well, never mind. Century Link just carry on with your fine upstanding service.

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