Please Note: In August 2022, Google Fiber announced it would expand into 22 metro areas in five states (Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nebraska, and Nevada), including previously announced expansions into Mesa, Arizona, and Colorado Springs, Colorado, based on where it felt speeds were lagging.[13] It also announced additional investment in North Carolina.[14] CNET characterized this an example of fast fiber winning the broadband wars.[15]
KARL BODE "...The company still hasn’t been very clear about specific expansion numbers, so I still tend to think the effort is more show pony branding and public awareness exercise than serious disruption play. Still, Google Fiber CEO Dinni Jain envisions a U.S. future where there’s actual competition. . .
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✓ Google Fiber’s definitely been a productive way to highlight shoddy U.S. broadband and force competition to key areas, but the project’s deployments have always fell well behind Google Fiber marketing. And it’s still not entirely clear that Alphabet executives remain interested enough in the idea (at the kind of scale that’s needed) to fulfill Jain’s optimism anytime soon."
Reminder - Read the comments; there are 22. Here's one
The idea of competition is a joke
REPORT from Techdirt
✓
Google Fiber Shows Signs Of Life, Promises 100 Gbps Service
from the build-it-and-they-will-come dept
"Back in 2016, Alphabet executives made it pretty clear they had grown tired of trying to disrupt the U.S. broadband industry with Google Fiber. Executives were fired, hundreds of employees were laid off, and any real expansion in the project was effectively frozen. Alphabet and Google Fiber executives then just pretended none of this had happened and nothing had changed.
For a while there it seemed like bored Alphabet executives would eventually sell the project off, but this year has finally seen some renewed signs of life. While the deployments are modest, Google Fiber has indicated it’s working on expansions in Arizona, Utah, and Iowa.
And last week announced in a blog post that the ISP would soon be offering customers speeds upwards of 20 gigabit per second (Gbps), with an eye on offering 100 Gbps eventually.
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The company still hasn’t been very clear about specific expansion numbers, so I still tend to think the effort is more show pony branding and public awareness exercise than serious disruption play. Still, Google Fiber CEO Dinni Jain envisions a U.S. future where there’s actual competition:
We believe that many, if not most, communities across America will ultimately have at least two, if not three, fiber providers and an incumbent coax provider. We see it in communities we plan to build in, and expect investment in the industry to continue.
✓ We’re nowhere near that goal. 83 million Americans currently live under a broadband monopoly, usually Comcast or Charter (spectrum). Somewhere between 20 million and 40 million Americans (we aren’t entirely sure because U.S. broadband maps suck) still lack access to any broadband whatsoever. I recently wrote a report for Techdirt and Copia on what we need to actually do to fix the problem.
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Google Fiber’s definitely been a productive way to highlight shoddy U.S. broadband and force competition to key areas, but the project’s deployments have always fell well behind Google Fiber marketing. And it’s still not entirely clear that Alphabet executives remain interested enough in the idea (at the kind of scale that’s needed) to fulfill Jain’s optimism anytime soon."
Filed Under: broadband, competition, fiber, gigabit, high speed internet, monopoly
Companies: google
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Posted: Sep 23, 2022
Google Fiber today
After a long silence, Google Fiber announced its first new city in four years: West Des Moines, Iowa.12 Shortly after that, it announced several new cities around Salt Lake City, Utah.2, 3, 4, 5 Although this expansion is not quite as aggressive as its initial campaign, it seems likely that Google Fiber will continue to expand into new areas.
Despite the numerous setbacks that it encountered in places like Louisville, Google Fiber is continuing to explore new and innovative ways of delivering fiber-to-the-home technology. For example, despite its previous failure with microtrenching, Google Fiber is once again using this technique in places like Taylorsville, Utah.3
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Google Fiber is also engaging in more public-private partnerships in order to expand its fiber network. It previously made similar deals with cities like Provo, Utah, which sold its municipal fiber infrastructure to Google.13 In West Des Moines, the city is building an “open conduit” that can be leased out to providers like Google Fiber.14 Many other countries handle internet infrastructure like this, and it can help increase competition among ISPs while reducing costs to customers. . .
Google Fiber Webpass
Google Fiber Webpass (formerly known as Google Webpass) is a service that provides fixed wireless internet for high-occupancy buildings, such as apartments and office buildings. Unlike most providers, Google Fiber Webpass doesn’t offer service to individual households, but rather to landlords, who then wire the whole building and give tenants the option to use the built-in internet service.
Somewhat confusingly, Google Fiber Webpass is not a fiber connection, and it is not available in Google Fiber Cities. The name is simply for branding purposes—the two services are completely distinct.
Most widely available fiber providers
| Provider | Price | Download speeds | Get it |
|---|---|---|---|
| AT&T | $55.00/mo.–$180.00/mo. | 300 Mbps–5 Gbps (5,000 Mbps) |
View Plans
Available in Zip
| |||
| CenturyLink | $65.00/mo. | 940 Mbps | View Plans |
| EarthLink | $59.95/mo.–$189.95/mo. | 75 Mbps–5 Gbps (5,000 Mbps) | View Plans |
| Frontier | $49.99/mo.–$149.99/mo. | 500 Mbps–2 Gbps (2,000 Mbps) | View Plans |
| Windstream | $57.00/mo.–$85.00/mo. | 1 Gbps (1,000 Mbps) | View Plans |
| Verizon | $49.99/mo.–$119.99/mo. | 200 Mbps–2,048 Mbps |
View Plans
Available in Zip
|
If Google Fiber isn’t available in your area yet, there might be another provider in your area offering fiber internet plans. Many nationwide ISPs are rolling out fiber-to-the-home connections to meet customer demands, and many of them have a much bigger fiber network than Google Fiber. The big difference is that none of these providers have a 100% fiber network like Google Fiber, so just because a provider covers your area, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they offer fiber at your address.
Friday, July 01, 2022
Next up: The Grand Canyon State
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I’m especially excited about this announcement, as it’s in my home state of Arizona. On July 11, the Mesa City Council is expected to vote on measures that will enable Google Fiber to deploy a gigabit speed, fiber-to-the-home network in Mesa. Mayor John Giles and the city staff have worked tirelessly on this issue, and Google Fiber is honored to join them in advancing their goals of increasing choices, connectivity and bandwidth throughout the city.
If approved by the City Council, we'll kick off the engineering and operations effort right away and begin construction in Mesa early next year.
I’m especially excited about this announcement, as it’s in my home state of Arizona. On July 11, the Mesa City Council is expected to vote on measures that will enable Google Fiber to deploy a gigabit speed, fiber-to-the-home network in Mesa. Mayor John Giles and the city staff have worked tirelessly on this issue, and Google Fiber is honored to join them in advancing their goals of increasing choices, connectivity and bandwidth throughout the city.
The success of these efforts has paved the way for even more expansive growth. And today we’re sharing what (or, rather, where!) is next for Google Fiber.
If you’ve been following Google Fiber, you know that we’ve been buzzing right along. Growing in our existing cities, improving our already awesome customer experience and service reliability, refining our construction methods to enable rapid and efficient network construction, and even launching service in new places.
If you’re in Mesa and want to stay up to date on our progress, you can sign up here for updates on offerings and availability. And stay tuned … things are just heating up in Arizona.
Posted by Ashley Church, General Manager, West Region
Google Fiber plots 5-state expansion
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Electric utilities and cooperatives are gaining prominence as alternative providers for rural broadband. Virginia utilities Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power have doubled down on fiber expansion – providing a roadmap for other states to tap into existing utility infrastructure to increase connectivity – per a newly published report from the Pew Trust...Its interest in Arizona and Colorado will come as little surprise to those who have been following Google Fiber’s activity. The operator announced in July it was hoping to strike a deal with local government officials to bring its service to the city of Mesa, Arizona. The city council subsequently approved Google Fiber along with three other operators to serve its more than 220,000 homes and businesses.
Asked how many markets it might be targeting in each state, a Google Fiber representative told Fierce it is “in active conversations with multiple communities in these five states. We expect to have more specifics to share in the coming weeks and months.” The representative added it does not plan to apply for government funding to help fuel its new builds.
Speedtest Global Index – Internet Speed around the world – Speedtest Global Index
Global Median Speeds
August 2022
Speedtest Global Index rankings are based on median download speed to best reflect the speeds a user is likely to achieve in a market. We will also continue to provide data on mean performance for comparative reference until February 15, 2023. Use the toggle below to explore or Learn more here
Results are updated mid-month for the previous month. January 1, 2019 onward countries must have at least 300 unique user results for mobile or fixed broadband to be ranked in either category. Prior to January 1, 2019 we required 670 unique user results for mobile and 3333 for fixed broadband.
City Speeds
Considering the 100 most populous cities in the U.S., Gilbert, Arizona took the top spot as the fastest city for median download speeds over fixed broadband at 253.21 Mbps. Jersey City, New Jersey was second at 223.86 Mbps; San Antonio, Texas third; Irvine, California fourth; and Raleigh, North Carolina fifth.
There can be no true competition when municipalities, housing developments, and apartment houses sell exclusive rights to the highest bidder.
Competition is only between corporations, for exclusive access. The consumers have no say whatsoever.