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Google Fiber: super high speed internet and TV service

Smallville

Smallville

#ICanHitADraw
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We get it first! HA!

http://www.fox4kc.com/news/wdaf-unified-government-touts-major-announcement-20110330,0,7163052.htmlstory

The only question is, HOW MUCH? 100 times faster than everyone else sounds great, but I think my Road Runner is plenty fast for me. I am so interested in the price of this, because even plenty fast can be a lot faster if it doesn't cost too much!

KANSAS CITY, Kan. - It's "Google Day" in Kansas, according to Governor Sam Brownback as Google announced on Wednesday morning that they've picked Kansas City, Kansas out of over 1,000 cities to launch their ultra high-speed broadband network. You can read a Live Blog of the announcement here.

Google made the announcement on their official blog Wednesday morning, and then joined Governor Brownback, Mayor Joe Reardon and other KCK officials in making the official announcement at Wyandotte County High School on Wednesday afternoon.

"March 30, 2011 is a momentous day," Reardon said during the announcement. He says Google's investment in Kansas City, Kansas will give businesses a better "virtual" arena to grow their companies.

"I'm excited for small businesses," said Reardon. "This gives them access to the Internet for what they do and in a way that they don't have today, to be more creative and to be better about commerce."

Google defines their ultra high-speed broadband as 2,000 times faster than dial-up and more than 100 times faster than the typical broadband connection. Google said the service would be provided at a "competitive" price, and will be working with the city to start deploying the service in neighborhoods.

"Think of the search that you live today at Google you just type and you get instant results blazingly fast," said Google CFO Patrick Pichette. "That's only with a few megs, and think what you are going to do with a gigabit, one-thousand megabits."

Google said that they made their decision based on where they could build the network efficiently and work closely with local organizations. The Google release said they've developed those relationships with the Kauffman Foundation, KCNext and KU Med.

Students at Wyandotte High say that the Internet is an integral part of their education.

"There are moments thoughout the day when the servers are down, or too many people are doing this and like we can't take tests because so many are on line," said junior Jilian Anderson. "So I think the faster the better. It's gonna help, I'm excited about it."

The project was first announced by Google one year ago, and Google says pending the city's approval the service will be available beginning in 2012.
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It would be nice if it includes a cable TV package. At the very least, I'd think it should be able to support VOIP phone service.
 
Step 4 in world domination begins.

I am a little suprised that this go off the ground before their cell network though. They've been buying up all the dark fibre for year nows
 
This just in at the same time though.

Steve Jobs announced that Apple has something that is half as fast, costs twice as much, but is made of forged material for that buttery soft internet.

The Apple store has a line out the door for this incredible new technology that will set people back 2 years. However fans are calling it a religious experience of internetdom
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JB said:
This just in at the same time though.
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:D

Are you sure it wasn't a 4 year set back though? 2 Years seems awful light...
 
ROTFL, great post JB, for some reason I thought you were an apple guy but it sounds like you are a rational person after all. :D
 
coolbreeze said:
ROTFL, great post JB, for some reason I thought you were an apple guy but it sounds like you are a rational person after all. :D
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I use a Mac. I like my Mac quite a bit. But my thoughts on life and everything around it are purely subjective.
 
And it looks like in addition to the intenet service, they may be offering a cable service as well. Take THAT, Time Warner!

Is Google getting into the cable TV market?

By Matt Weinberger | November 7, 2011, 3:23pm PST

Summary: There’s a rumor going around that Google Fiber might bring along a new TV service designed to compete with the cable companies.


We’ve known about Google’s plans to deploy a high-speed fiber network in Kansas City, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri for a while now. But a Wall Street Journal report is indicating that when the network arrives in early 2012, it may come with an added surprise: a paid Google pay-TV service designed to compete with cable and satellite providers.

The WSJ story in question cites as its source the extremely ambiguous “people briefed on [Google's] plans.” But if it’s true, it seems that Google has been courting deals to carry television channels owned by major players like Disney, Time Warner and Discovery - thought no final deals have been reached and it’s still in an exploratory phase.

As expected, none of the parties involved have opted to comment on what’s still only rumor and speculation. But this would make a certain degree of sense given Google’s overall video strategy. Google continues pushing the Google TV software despite a lukewarm initial reception, while continuing to partner with the major networks for commercial-supported content on YouTube.

Basically, Google is in a prime place to start offering a cheaper, online video-driven competitor to Time Warner Cable, Dish Network and DirecTV, the Kansas City area’s main choices when it comes to premium television. It has the software platform and the means of delivering key content, and soon Google Fiber will mean there’s going to be more than sufficient bandwidth in every home.

But just because it could doesn’t mean that it will. And until Google issues any kind of official statement, I’m going to have to remain skeptical. But in the meanwhile, I have to ask: would you go with Google for your cable TV?



http://www.zdnet.com/blog/google/is-google-getting-into-the-cable-tv-market/3444
 
I'd love to tell TWC to kiss my ass, Congrats to you

Ready, Aim, (Kindle) FIRE!
 
I found a shorter, more concise story than the one I originally posted. I edited my post.
 
I'm jealous smalls! I'd sign up for that really quick but I'm also a google homer.
 
The cool thing is that while I was talking to Time Warner about changing some of my services, that they don't have that voice agreement from me that would tie me to their service until May of 2012. I can cancel any time without any penalty. So we were going to drop our phone service in January, but now we are going to keep it until Google gets here and drop everything, hopefully. Unless Time Warner can give us a better deal. But I think at this point I am ready to switch anyway. I just hope the cable is included.
 
Nothing against Google, I use them all the time for searches. But I dont think I would use any other service from them, much less my internet and voice services. Google has a bad habbit of tracking absolutely everything you do (kinda like apple).

I have nothing to hide, just the principle of the thing. And you know they sell all that data to their partners.
 
Well, since Time Warner has been pissing off hundreds of thousands of people because they couldn't come to an agreement with Hearst TV (many cities have lost a network channel . . . we lost ABC and the CW), I did some checking around. Talked to DISH, and they have a pretty good package, but it's satellite and I am not crazy about it, but the price is pretty good for 12 months. Problem is it goes up 30 bucks after the year is up, and another channel (Fox Soccer Plus) that we watch a lot is 15 bucks while it is only 6 on Time Warner. Overall, after two years the TV service would cost more, by quite a bit, over what we have now.

SO I call Time Warner and get prices on TV, internet and phone; TV and internet; and just internet. I ended up dropping our landline phone service and I am just going with the same cable we have plus the road runner internet (and as a bonus, we're getting Turbo Boost free for a year, that's 20 bucks they charge for that). So we're saving 45 bucks over what we had before, plus getting the $20 Turbo for free.

The good thing is that where I would have committed to DISH for two years, I have no contract with Time Warner, so whenever Google finally gets here, I can drop the Internet and go to Google High Speed, and hopefully they will have cable too. We'll see how it pans out.

In the meantime, I am still using an HD antenna to get ABC.
 
THE BEST NEWS EVER!


Google Fiber is going to cost:

$0 for their "free" internet. You get average speed internet (5mb download, 1 mb upload) for a $300 connection fee or $25 aq month for 12 months. That's it, guaranteed for at least seven years.

$70 for 1gigabit upload AND download speed or,

$120 for the 1 gig service PLUS TV!


From the Google Fiber blog:

How do you want your Internet? You choose
For over a year we’ve been talking to a lot of people in Kansas City who’ve helped shape Google Fiber. It turns out you want speed, choice, great content and simplicity.
So we’ve put together three service packages that will be available if your fiberhood gets installed:

Gigabit + Google Fiber TV: What’s better than a gig of Internet? A gig plus TV, designed for how you watch today and how you’ll watch tomorrow. Google Fiber TV carries hundreds of channels (including your local favorites) and tens of thousands of shows on demand in crystal clear HD. With eight tuners and 2TB of DVR storage, you’ll never have to miss a show again. You’ll also get a brand new Nexus 7 tablet that you can use as your remote control. Gigabit + Google Fiber TV will cost $120 per month, and we’ll waive the $300 construction fee.

Gigabit Internet: With a gig, you can do everything you love on the web at speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans enjoy today. This package will include a gigabit-enabled network box with advanced WiFi and 1TB of cloud storage on Google Drive. Gigabit Internet will cost $70 per month, and we’ll waive the $300 construction fee.

Free Internet: We know that not everyone is ready to commit to a gig just yet. But we want to make sure you have the opportunity to upgrade when you’re ready. So if you pre-register and your fiberhood gets installed, you’ll have the option to get a 5 megabit per second (Mbps) connection for zero monthly charge, and your home will be wired and ready for the switch. The Free Internet option will cost $0 per month, although you will have to pay a $300 construction fee (which can either be paid at once, or in $25 monthly installments).

You can read more details about the different packages on the Google Fiber site and in the FAQ. Whether you want the full Google Fiber experience including TV, the simple excitement of a gig, or today’s speeds with tomorrow’s options—we’re excited to share the possibilities of a faster Internet.

Posted by Kevin Lo, General Manager, Google Access
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http://googlefiberblog.blogspot.com/
 
That is freakin cool Smalls. You going to switch?
 
Thats awesome, I would love to have option, I am guessing you will jumping on it.
 
Smallville said:
THE BEST NEWS EVER!


Google Fiber is going to cost:

$0 for their "free" internet. You get average speed internet (5mb download, 1 mb upload) for a $300 connection fee or $25 aq month for 12 months. That's it, guaranteed for at least seven years.

$70 for 1gigabit upload AND download speed or,

$120 for the 1 gig service PLUS TV!


From the Google Fiber blog:



http://googlefiberblog.blogspot.com/
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My jaw dropped when I read this.. I'm paying $65 for 30mb down. I have never wanted to move back to KC so badly in my life haha.
 
I pre-registered still need some more people in my area before we hit the number. The TV package doesnt list ESPN tho, not sure whats up with that.
 
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Wake said:
That is freakin cool Smalls. You going to switch?
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ripper said:
Thats awesome, I would love to have option, I am guessing you will jumping on it.
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If nothing else it's ammunition against Time Warner. But yeah, I am going to look at it closer when I get home and decide for sure then.



ddxu said:
I pre-registered still need some more people in my area before we hit the number. The TV package doesnt list ESPN tho, not sure whats up with that.
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I see a few stations not there yet, but hopefully they will get more when it goes live. The one I noticed first was Fox Soccer.
 
We only need 24 more households in my area to pre-register to guarantee we will be able to get it here.

Only thing keeping me from going completely with them is the TV programming. Not having ESPN and the soccer channels hurts, being Man City fans. We watched nearly every game last season and would hate to miss any this year because our provider doesn't carry them. It's still a long way to go before they start installing into homes so hopefully they can increase their channel lineup.

There are a few others, but we can live without a lot of stuff. We are definitely doing the Fiber internet though.
 
Smallville said:
We only need 24 more households in my area to pre-register to guarantee we will be able to get it here.

Only thing keeping me from going completely with them is the TV programming. Not having ESPN and the soccer channels hurts, being Man City fans. We watched nearly every game last season and would hate to miss any this year because our provider doesn't carry them. It's still a long way to go before they start installing into homes so hopefully they can increase their channel lineup.

There are a few others, but we can live without a lot of stuff. We are definitely doing the Fiber internet though.
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No espn would be a deal breaker for me, no way could I go without it. I have no early clue if I have fox soccer or not, I reckon I'll never find out.
 
Haven't posted here for a while, but signups are done and my neighborhood is 21st in line to get it, tentatively planned for Spring of 2013, depending on how bad the winter is. It is internet AND TV, and they have gotten all the ESPN channels and all of the Fox channels (including Soccer and Soccer Plus).

NFL Network is included and they will have RedZone, which is all I use to watch football games anymore, for 40 bucks a year.

The full channel lineup is here: http://fiber.google.com/plans/channels/ but they keep adding to it.


The Premier League is leaving the Fox Soccer channels next year though, but it looks like they have the channels it will be shown on!
 
They are going to be finishing up the three largest sign up areas shortly, and will be getting started on the next four in March. So that will be a third of the way to my neighborhood (21st), and they are still saying Spring of 2013 in my area. So I am looking at sometime before June 21st.

They are starting on the first two areas in KC, Missouri in March, and should have eight total done by Summer on that side of the State line.

I have seen a lot of work being done around here already that I don't normally see, so I am just guessing that it is prep for running the lines.
 
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