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Google Fiber

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40hz:
What's the catch?
-Renegade (July 27, 2012, 04:38 PM)
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Yes, especially for the "free" version!
-jgpaiva (July 28, 2012, 05:15 AM)
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* Connection speed is capped at "regular internet speeds" ("up to" 5mbs down/1Mbs up - but no indication of the lowest speed) on free version.
* $300 up front & non-refundable if you upgrade to the faster speed later on
* Lifetime guarantee = 7 year service commitment if Google decides to bail out
* Privacy. Everything you do online will be data mined by Google. Count on it.
* Bug Brother is watching you! As was alluded to earlier, don't even think of doing anything that may be illegal on Google's network. So bye-bye to "sharing" copyrighted media, ferquenting the warez torrents, hacker darknets, and many other things you may currently enjoy, depending on your personal tastes. And expect full behind the scenes "voluntary cooperation" with any government snooping requests regardless of any public hand wringing over it by Google.
But the single biggest catch I can see is simply waiting for it to be available in your locale.

It's pretty clever of Google. They're sure to face protests and outrage from all the other services and cable giants who want to keep their antiquated practices and pricing schemes going for as long as possible. Google just let the cat out of the bag and let people know what they could expect from a company that realizes it makes absolutely zero sense to price and treat digital data communications using the same economic and business models as analog communications uses.

Digital provides (or can provide) virtually infinite bandwidth. You don't need all the regulations, bandwidth caps, and technical safeguards that were formerly imposed to minimize distortion and signal degradation in non-digital telecommunications and radio signals. The cable companies and telcos (along with most of the regulatory agencies) are still ocked into the old analog voice communications mindset. And voice communications (both analog and digital) now represents only a 20% (and dropping) share of the actual signal being carried by these dinosaur-brained companies.

Nice marketing move. Create customer demand and political "pull" - and then move into the communities begging for it. Now lets see how well Comcast, Cablevision, and AT&T can lean on their political stooges to introduce regulatory hurdles to block it from happening...

Love it! (Too bad I don't trust Google as far as I can thow it. :-\ )

Still...if it comes into my area, I know I'll probably buy into it. :-[


                             40hz is such a hypocrite sometimes.

wraith808:
^^ At least the bunny is cute :)

And I wonder how much of this is to force other ISPs to follow suit.  I think Google probably sees itself as limited by the limits ISPs put on their services.  This way, they force them to be competitive, and after the market has changed, they bail if it isn't profitable enough or too much of a headache.

CWuestefeld:
Bug Brother is watching you! As was alluded to earlier, don't even think of doing anything that may be illegal-40hz (July 31, 2012, 04:42 PM)
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Not that what you say is wrong... But it's my opinion that Google has done more to protect privacy than any of the telecom companies. The phone companies in particular seem to have completely rolled over, giving the keys to the network to the gov't without a whimper -- even though it was illegal to do so.

It looks to me like Google (a) doesn't just provide a network port for bulk tapping; and (b) vets each request for info. That's not as good as taking a stand for what's right, but it's a heck of a lot better than we get from ATT, Verizon, etc.

40hz:
It looks to me like Google (a) doesn't just provide a network port for bulk tapping; and (b) vets each request for info. That's not as good as taking a stand for what's right, but it's a heck of a lot better than we get from ATT, Verizon, etc.
-CWuestefeld (July 31, 2012, 06:31 PM)
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Agree. But it's only a matter of time before 'the powers that be' get the wording and constitutional overrides fully worked out. Once the laws are less 'ambiguously worded' Google will roll over. Which is the problem with not taking a stand for what's right. So while I agree with you that Google has done more, it's still more of a rear guard action IMO than a brave confrontation. Being more than a little cynical these days, I also suspect Google is more interested in doing what they think they can get away with rather than doing what they obviously know is right.

Note: Feel free to ignore the above. It's just my childhood rearing its pointy little head. We used to be required to take civics classes back then. Government sponsored public schools taught us how things were supposed to work, and what this country was supposed to be about. But that was before corporate greed and government paranoia derailed us. Small wonder they don't teach civics sny more. :(

40hz:
^^ At least the bunny is cute :)

And I wonder how much of this is to force other ISPs to follow suit.  I think Google probably sees itself as limited by the limits ISPs put on their services.  This way, they force them to be competitive, and after the market has changed, they bail if it isn't profitable enough or too much of a headache.
-wraith808 (July 31, 2012, 05:15 PM)
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Yup! Like I said. It's brilliant! ;D

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