Google Fiber rolling out to 4 more metros, local providers crapping pants

[SunnyD]

Wake me when it comes to Huntsville.

Oh wait, it never will because we have "competition" here with 4 different cable companies in the area. The problem with the notion of "competition" here is that the competition is localized to areas serviced by 1 primary and maybe 1 overbuilder, or 1 primary and 1 telco that supplies DSL. There are pockets of UVerse around here, but UVerse is a joke anyway. Price competition is nil everywhere.

Franchise agreements need to DIAF.

 

[CZroe]

Interesting, where did you find that info? Sadly I don't know enough about the those areas to know if that's somewhere worth living.

https://fiber.google.com/cities/atlanta/home/

 

[Demo24]

https://fiber.google.com/cities/atlanta/home/

Ah, I missed that yesterday. Thanks!

 

[Phoenix86]

Wake me when it comes to Huntsville.

Oh wait, it never will because we have "competition" here with 4 different cable companies in the area. The problem with the notion of "competition" here is that the competition is localized to areas serviced by 1 primary and maybe 1 overbuilder, or 1 primary and 1 telco that supplies DSL. There are pockets of UVerse around here, but UVerse is a joke anyway. Price competition is nil everywhere.

Franchise agreements need to DIAF.

Not gonna say AT&T is any kind of saint by any stretch of the imagination, but them and Verizon are the ONLY reason ANY cable based internet improved.

How's u-verse a joke? It's not gig speeds but it's plenty fast enough and miles ahead of DSL, which is most people's only second option. I have had it for years and it's easily the best available service.

 

[Slick5150]

We have a local company here that just started offering 1gbps fiber to the house. I dumped my 100mb Comcast connection and switched to them. Quite happy so far. Not hitting 1gb speed, but getting pretty close.

 

[SunnyD]

Not gonna say AT&T is any kind of saint by any stretch of the imagination, but them and Verizon are the ONLY reason ANY cable based internet improved.

How's u-verse a joke? It's not gig speeds but it's plenty fast enough and miles ahead of DSL, which is most people's only second option. I have had it for years and it's easily the best available service.

Context: When your comparison is UVerse or DSL, then UVerse wins. When your comparison is UVerse or a reasonably fast cable provider, no contest.

That said, I'd take UVerse if it was offered in my neighborhood just on pricing terms at this point. Why? Comcrap.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

60/3 Mbps, no caps (Charter). I usually average 68/6 Mbps.

Honestly I never noticed a difference when it went from 30 to 60. I'd rather have the 30 back at a better rate.

I'm with this guy. I gone from 12 to 15 to 20 to 25 and now at 50/50. I haven't noticed any extra speed since the 12 to 15 upgrade. The servers you connect to are the problem. I'm all for more competition to reduce the rates.
Personally I feel google is getting too big and gathering too much data about us.

 

[Aikouka]

Speeds have gone up 10-20 fold for cable internet in most parts of the US. DOCSIS 3.0 wasn't even around 15 years ago.

DOCSIS 3's biggest contribution was channel banding, which is a concept that we've had since dial-up modems. Anyone remember that old "shotgun modem" that used two lines to double your speed?

Wake me when it comes to Huntsville.

Oh wait, it never will because we have "competition" here with 4 different cable companies in the area. The problem with the notion of "competition" here is that the competition is localized to areas serviced by 1 primary and maybe 1 overbuilder, or 1 primary and 1 telco that supplies DSL. There are pockets of UVerse around here, but UVerse is a joke anyway. Price competition is nil everywhere.

Well, at least the municipal-supported fiber project is still humming a long. We should hear a lot more about it over the next few months. Although, my only worry with Huntsville Utilities refusing to do it themselves is that a third-party company won't want to go out further into the developing areas, and that'll affect people like you.

But yeah... our only decent providers are Comcast and WOW. Mediacom and AT&T UVerse are pretty much a joke.

 

[Phoenix86]

Context: When your comparison is UVerse or DSL, then UVerse wins. When your comparison is UVerse or a reasonably fast cable provider, no contest.

That said, I'd take UVerse if it was offered in my neighborhood just on pricing terms at this point. Why? Comcrap.

The reason for the DSL comparison is needed, it's typically the "other" service most people have available outside cable. I guess I should throw in satellite internet too, which u-verse tramples as well.

People typically go from: cable or DSL/sat to cable or u-verse. When that change happens the cable providers shape up all the sudden (to a degree). That alone makes u-verse (or fios) not a joke at all.

When you compare to similar tiers of service you say it's no contest, but then you say you'd get u-verse for exactly the same reason I said u-verse wins compared to cable companies. So... it's not a joke?