
Google in Kansas City: A Tale of Two-Speed America - wyclif
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7e18b044-51c3-11e5-8642-453585f2cfcd.html
======
bsder
I am always amazed that people can't figure out why Google is doing this.

Google is rolling out fiber to neuter Comcast. Period.

Comcast basically blackmailed Google several years back and thought they won.
Google, rightfully, now saw Comcast as an existential threat to their
business.

Google will keep rolling out until they have Comcast by the balls. Only then
will they stop.

~~~
rhino369
I disagree. I think it's pretty clear that Google fiber is an attempt to
create demand for faster residential connections and provide a model for ISPs
to do it.

If Google wanted to come at Comcast, they'd be gearing up a lot faster than
they are. At this point Google Fiber is mostly FttPR-Fiber to the Press
Release. And also, I don't think any of the first several Google Fiber
locations were even in Comcast territory. So far AT&T and TWC have been their
competitors.

They want to create demand because Google loves remote computing and loves
internet consumption.

Google is providing a model for the ISPs by forcing local communities to
deregulate their ISP franchising system. Before Google Fiber, each town or
state would take a pound of flesh from the new company trying to lay down a
network. Google made the cities bend over backwards.

~~~
halviti
This is exactly it, and it was their stated intention from the beginning.

[https://gigaom.com/2010/02/10/google-doesnt-want-to-be-an-
is...](https://gigaom.com/2010/02/10/google-doesnt-want-to-be-an-isp-it-wants-
to-be-a-rabble-rouser/)

------
Elepsis
This is just mentioned as an aside in the article, but is this accurate?

 _" Even now, the schools in Kansas City, Missouri, are effectively
segregated, with almost all white children at private schools. Just nine per
cent of pupils in the state system are white. Almost 90 per cent are on free
lunches."_

That statistic was totally shocking to me. Are there any other places in the
U.S. where there's such a dramatic disparity in the race of students in public
school relative to the overall population?

~~~
omurphyevans
There was a recent This American Life episodes about this. Apparently the best
way to raise poor black children's scores is to remove segregation, but white
communities don't want it:

[http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-
archives/episode/562/t...](http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-
archives/episode/562/the-problem-we-all-live-with)

I'm from the UK and was genuinely shocked. While there are disparities and
issues over here, they're on a different scale compared to the US.

~~~
Asbostos
Depends where you are. London is deeply racially divided. There are
effectively black-only schools and white-only schools. There are also schools
almost completely dominated by various other ethnic groups too. The divide
includes both the teachers and the students.

~~~
dazc
Not just London.

------
rasz_pl
Romania, and parts of Poland where new Fiber networks are laid out have
~$35-40 1Gbit unlimited internet. Meanwhile people in US wonder how much
Google is losing on $100 per 1Gb clients? :)

~~~
adventured
According to Akamai's State of the Internet report for Q1, the US has an
average broadband speed of 11.9mbps. Romania is 12.8mbps, Poland is 9.8mbps.
By comparison France is 7.5mbps, and Germany is 10.2mbps.

Based on the median household income in Romania being 16% that of the US, if
1gbps Internet access there costs $35-$40, you're paying the US equivalent of
$210-$240.

~~~
cbg0
It's actually 14$/mo. with VAT in Romania for 1000mbps. I'm not sure if
Akamai's state of the Internet also takes into account mobile connections,
because those would certainly drop the average speed down.

Edit: the speed itself is also not limited to just inside the country,
although ISPs in Europe use public peerings a lot more than those in the US.

[http://www.speedtest.net/result/4647615600.png](http://www.speedtest.net/result/4647615600.png)
[http://www.speedtest.net/result/4647608031.png](http://www.speedtest.net/result/4647608031.png)

~~~
noja
With an unlimited gigabit port? How much is a server there with that speed, is
there a Romanian Hetzner equivalent?

~~~
cbg0
This price is for residential users only. You can't really beat hetzner on
price.

------
discardorama
"In February, local Congressman Emanuel Cleaver sent a letter to Larry Page,
co-founder of Google, warning that “preliminary statistics [for Google Fiber]
suggest the beginning of a ‘digital redlining’ in our city”"

But this Congressman couldn't find the funds to subsidize the poor people's
signup fees, which are just $10 each?

~~~
kohito
Subsidy is one way of handling the signup fees. And it might work. But I can't
tell if you're saying subsidy is the right answer here, or if you're saying
the congressman's complaint to Google is out of line.

~~~
discardorama
I'm saying that throwing about words like "redlining" is just an attempt to
browbeat Google. If the Congressman was so concerned, he could get the
$10/family subsidy from somewhere; which, I think, is the proper use of funds.

------
tudorw
"Liimatta tried to convince Google to install connections in community
buildings, to power a cheap WiFi service in low-income areas. The company
refused, saying it violated its terms of service. “It’s our biggest
disappointment. We would have loved to have taken Google Fiber to the worst
places, where it could have really made a difference.”

~~~
hueving
>where it could have really made a difference.

Is there a study that shows that the low income population makes better use of
high speed bandwidth? Right now it's mainly just a luxury product for HD video
streams and the majority of the educational gains of an Internet connection
can be had with 5-10mbps.

~~~
fulafel
The quote was "cheap WiFi" \- he meant getting net access for people who don't
currently have it.

~~~
dublinben
"Cheap WiFi" implies to me that they would still be charging users for access.
Reselling a connection is obviously against their terms of service. Community
organizations will probably have better luck simply paying for connections,
and then running open access points to provide _free_ access to the community.

------
Asbostos
Either something's missing from the report of Vogl's argument, or she's trying
to do something purely destructive in shutting down the startup offices. This
seems to be the entirety of her case:

\- The workers use up too many parking spaces.

\- They're richer than us.

\- They think we're poor.

\- They commute to work instead of living in the office.

\- They're untrustworthy because they're outsiders.

~~~
maxsilver
Did we read the same article? Vogl's argument seemed to rest on :

\- These houses are residential properties.

\- People are using them as commercial properties (offices, under the guise of
'live/work spaces')

\- No one is stopping it, Zoning is not enforced there (because 'it's a poor
neighborhood'), but zoning is enforced in wealthier areas (Johnson County).

The rest of the stuff you mention is true too. But I don't think it's the
"entirety of her case" \-- it's support for the case. "They commute to work
instead of living in the office", for instance, is strong evidence that the
property is commercial, not residential in nature.

This seems like a cut-and-dry zoning violation, that's being ignored because
the area is "poor". I don't think she's being destructive, she's just asking
for fair and equal treatment.

------
SG-
Just curious, but realistically if I wanted to move to KC and rent a single or
double bedroom apartment or small home that could get Google Fiber, what would
I be looking at?

Seriously pondering moving out of Canada and back to the US and I'm not
interested at all in paying for a place like Boston where I used to live.

~~~
peacemaker
Take a look on Craigslist but the prices vary quite a bit around here. We're
in Overland Park, where Google Fiber isn't here for another year or two and a
1400sqft 2 bed with a garage will set you back between $1000-$1500 a month.

------
Animats
That looks an awful lot like a paid article.

~~~
Elepsis
Paid by whom, exactly? It's not particularly complimentary towards Google.
It's not particularly complimentary towards any incumbents, either. Unless
you're suggesting that the less well off population of Kansas City pooled
their resources to lobby for an article in the Financial Times, nothing in the
article suggests any kind of untoward influence.

