
Serving San Francisco apartments and condos, using existing fiber - archiebunker
http://googlefiberblog.blogspot.com/2016/02/san-francisco-google-fiber.html
======
ceocoder
Official Google link [http://googlefiberblog.blogspot.com/2016/02/san-
francisco-go...](http://googlefiberblog.blogspot.com/2016/02/san-francisco-
google-fiber.html)

Apartments and condos only, should have known better than to get my hopes up
for a few seconds
[https://www.evernote.com/l/APMXftBrJ9pDqYaymNPSZ59E-4jMUpl8a...](https://www.evernote.com/l/APMXftBrJ9pDqYaymNPSZ59E-4jMUpl8aPUB/image.png)

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dang
Thanks. We changed the URL to that from
[http://www.engadget.com/2016/02/24/google-fiber-san-
francisc...](http://www.engadget.com/2016/02/24/google-fiber-san-francisco/).

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falsedan
Disappointing that engadget mention AT&T but not Sonic. I got my fiber install
7 weeks ago in Outer Sunset and it's been flawless.

~~~
ceocoder
Congrats on Sonic Fiber! FWIW I tried their DSL service in sunset (they
sublease from AT&T) - speed was unreliable even with dual lines, HOWEVER hands
down the best customer service experience I've had and not just with a
internet/telephone company. I talked to Nick from Sonic who really knew what
he was doing as we tried troubleshooting and agreed within 10 minutes that my
location was simply too far to get good connection. They cancelled the line
and refunded 100% of the costs with zero hassle. I can't wait to get Sonic
Fiber, hopefully they start installing on east of 22nd Ave soon.

~~~
corysama
I'll plug Sonic here too. My dual-line speed is _okay_. But, the customer
service is downright pleasant. Every time I've called I've spoken to someone
who not only has a clue, but also is able to actually get stuff done.

~~~
equalarrow
Yup, I'll third that. DSL is hampered by the fact it's AT&T. If you can get
'pure' Sonic fiber, revel in that. Aside from their great customer service,
they are also pro-privacy _and_ no caps! We have FTTN service and I sync a lot
of data to and from work. It's nice to know that they don't play that lame
game of limits.

It'll be interesting to see how Google works out. Can't recommend Somic enough
tho.

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bstrand
This seems more limited in scope than the article implies, as it will only use
_existing_ fiber. From the announcement: "San Francisco—where we’ll bring
service to some apartments, condos, and affordable housing properties, using
existing fiber."

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bsimpson
I can't help but wonder what the impact will be on housing prices. I imagine
that having access to Fiber will add a not-insignificant premium to what the
market would be willing to pay for an equivalent non-Fiber unit.

~~~
ThrustVectoring
You have to look at fiber's effect on aggregate demand, not just the demand at
a particular price-point and location. Will it convince more people to move to
the area as a whole? Quite possibly, but it's unlikely to be a huge deal. I
suspect that there's much more effect in terms of techies moving out of non-
fiber units and into fiber ones, making the fiber ones more expensive and the
non-fiber less.

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nodesocket
Excited for this, but I wonder about the channel lineup. I am a huge sports
fan and Xfinity provides ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, CBS Sports, Fox Sports Net, NFL
Redzone, NFL network, etc. Does fiber offer those channels? Plus, I have to
give Xfinity a bit of credit. The X1 system is actually pretty good. I can set
recording on my DVR from my phone on the go and even watch live TV from my
phone or tablet.

~~~
ceocoder
For Austin they offer[0] decent number of sports channels, probably the same
for San Francisco

[0]
[https://fiber.google.com/cities/austin/channels/](https://fiber.google.com/cities/austin/channels/)

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zymhan
Maybe the relative density of SFO will speed deployment compared to some other
cities? Like sprawling Atlanta, for one.

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ghouse
SFO is an airport. SF is a city.

~~~
zymhan
So is PDX. People still use it to refer to Portland. This is not a new
concept.

~~~
dragonwriter
Using the FAA location identifier for the main airport serving a US city as an
abbreviation for a city is a not-uncommon practice for cities that don't have
other well-established abbreviations.

So, PDX for Portland is consistent with that.

SFO for San Francisco is not, for the reason pointed out in GP, just as IAD
for Washington, D.C. wouldn't be.

~~~
cdeangel
Happens in Canada as well. People use YYZ to refer to Toronto pretty
frequently.

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newman314
I always wondered why Google did not include it's home market during the
initial rollout.

AFAIK, there are plenty of cities in the Bay Area that have fiber and that
Google will choose to expand beyond just SF. Some of us like not living in SF.

~~~
Veratyr
The Bay Area other than South Bay is difficult. My city, San Leandro, has
public/private "partnership" fiber in the ground [0] for businesses. When I
contacted them about residential, they let me know that they'd had a look and
the demand just wasn't there.

I took it further to see if I could get my building on it through one of the
commercial partners (PAXIO) but the costs of building it out were pretty high
(~$15k was what I was told) and I couldn't convince my building management
that paying for it would work out for them.

I really hope Google or someone does do this for the rest of the bay area but
I think it's more likely that Comcast will bring out DOCSIS 3.1 and
everyone'll be happy enough that nothing will happen.

[0]: [http://litsanleandro.com/](http://litsanleandro.com/)

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therobot24
Maybe now the HN community will stop complaining whenever a new city is
added...

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colemannerd
I'm still waiting for google fiber to come to even half of Austin.

