
Google Fiber is ending a free-internet offer in its first city - mathattack
http://recode.net/2016/04/09/free-google-fiber-kansas-city/
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ryao
This appears to only affect new sign ups. Those who already have the free tier
will have at least 7 years of service:

[https://m.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/4e7i2e/google_fib...](https://m.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/4e7i2e/google_fiber_ends_free_5mbps_internet_offer_in/d1xy7rp)

Either this was planned to be a promotional offer from the start of people in
Kansas were beginning to downgrade to the free tier after noticing those
around them had no problems on it.

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chmike
A free Fiber is not viable on the long run. It looks like dumping to me. It
looked more like an attempt to kill competitors than a constructive
competitive pressure.

However I find 50$ expensive. The most expensive offer in France is Orange for
37€ (42USD) for 100Mbit/s download and 50Mbit/s upload. And with this you get
160 TV channels and unlimited phone calls through the fiber.

I have 1000MBit/s download and 250 Mbit/s upload for 26€ (~30USD), many tv
channels and unlimited phone calls and fixed IP address (no IPv6 support yet).
This allows to use twitch and publish our games. It also allows to do a backup
and restore of my rented server in a snap although I could in theory host it
at home.

I'm afraid that US people loose the benefit of much cheaper device prices
(Apple, etc) on the cost of monthly fee of the Internet line or mobile phone
line.

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blacksmith_tb
It isn't much like dumping in the US, where local monopolies are the rule. I
pay $120/month for 150/30 cable service in Portland OR, which is pretty
terrible compared to many other parts of the world. I can't imagine Google is
really interested in becoming another regional monopoly, they are clearly
trying to drive the existing ISPs to improve their offerings (since GOOG makes
money when more people are online). If killing the competition was their plan,
they are certainly doing it very slowly (I'd happily pay them for fiber).

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Someone1234
This is a little off-topic so I apologise for that: How close does the literal
fiber on Google Fiber get to a home? Meaning do they terminate from fiber in
the home itself, or does fiber terminate on the street, or on the block, or
what?

For example they could be using cat6 or heck even cat5e to deliver 10-1 Gbps
internet the final mile.

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amazon_not
> How close does the literal fiber on Google Fiber get to a home?

The fiber is brought to the building.

> For example they could be using cat6 or heck even cat5e to deliver 10-1 Gbps
> internet the final mile.

Ethernet only work to 330 feet. Beyond that you have to use VDSL.

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wolfgke
Just three (four) words: Embrace, extend and extinguish

>
> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend_and_extinguish](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend_and_extinguish)

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bargl
Embrace, Extend, and Extinguish is typically seen as a bad thing that takes a
highly competitive market, turns it into some form of monopoly or oligopoly.
And it is almost always associated with Microsoft not Google.

How is this relevant? There already exists a market where consumers have
little to no choice, they are locked into the stale and almost ludicrously bad
options of one or (if you're lucky) two service providers. You are already
within a form of control that you can't hope to break out of.

Now if I were to coin a phrase for Google it would be, Data, Data, and Data.
Where this gives them just another angle for sucking up user data and using
how they see fit, but that's not to say that Verizon, Cox, Comcast can't
already do that. They just don't have all my search history as well as email
to boot.

Final thought, Microsoft was known for Extinguishing some cool and open
companies in it's time, I for one don't mind seeing Comcast, Verizon, or Cox
get a little competition to make them step up their game.

~~~
infogulch
Exactly. Extinguish what? Comcast et al's regressive monopolistic consumer-
hostile business practices? Sign me up!

ISP's have not been a free market for a long time, if ever, and it's about
time they saw some competition that forces service to improve and prices to
drop in step with the rest of the economy.

