News Google Fiber forces the competition to offer faster internet speeds — study shows up to 50% download speed increases in Mesa, Arizona

[Admin]

Ookla's research data shows that GFiber's entry into a market forces existing internet service providers to increase the reliability and speed of their current offerings.

Google Fiber forces the competition to offer faster internet speeds — study shows up to 50% download speed increases in Mesa, Arizona : Read more

 

[jeremyj_83]

This isn't surprising at all. Chattanooga, Tennessee was the first really well know case study for this. Back in 2008 Chattanooga was having problems with ISPs offering faster or more reliable services. In 2009 the Stimulus Package included money for broadband internet expansion. The city took the money and made their own Metro Internet service since none of the private ISPs were going to do anything. They were offering 1Gbps service to customers for $80/month back in 2011 or so. Since this is a public utility, customers only have to pay for maintenance and upgrade since profit margin isn't a thing. Now Chattanooga has one of the most reliable and cheapest internet services in the country. This created a boom for companies needing reliable internet access to move into the city which created extra jobs. This also forced the private ISPs to offer faster speeds at cheaper prices to compete. However, those private ISPs also didn't want the Metro Internet to expand further than the current metro area so they lobbied (bribed) politicians in Nashville to make it illegal for public internet to expand beyond its current area. I also believe that the law says that there can be no new public ISPs either. Right now you can get 1Gbps service there for $68/month or 2.5Gbps service for $98/month. For reference I recently got 1Gbps service from AT&T and it is $80/month for 2 years where I live.

 

[DS426]

I wonder how many folks subscribe to GFiber's 20 Gbps d/l service and then get frustrated when they can't reach those speeds on their devices, lol. Surely they give a disclaimer up front that it depends on the customer's network hardware capability?

 

[jeremyj_83]

I wonder how many folks subscribe to GFiber's 20 Gbps d/l service and then get frustrated when they can't reach those speeds on their devices, lol. Surely they give a disclaimer up front that it depends on the customer's network hardware capability?

I wonder if that is the same cost for companies as well. If you can get that type of speed then doing backups to S3 or Blob storage is really fast and easy.

 

[Makaveli]

Once you go fiber almost impossible to back to cable. Made the switch in 2018.

 

[King_V]

Once you go fiber almost impossible to back to cable. Made the switch in 2018.

Depends on the cable. Where I am, I can get Verizon FiOS, and Comcast. Both offer 300Mbps. With FiOS it's symmetrical, with Comcast it's, uh, not.

But, when Verizon upped my monthly rate and, despite being a customer for a decade, refused to budge on it (even though new customers were getting less), I switched to Comcast.

Only AFTER the cancellation with Verizon did they send me an email saying they'd go back to my previous monthly rate. But, they lost me for a year on that.

They've done that again recently. Actually, had $39.99/month, then in November bumped it to $43.99. Two months ago, it became $49.99. Weirdly, though, that's what they're charging new customers as well.

Still, two hikes in a year, totaling a 25% jump, is a bit off-putting, and, depending on what Comcast is offering now, I might switch to them again for a year.

 

[TCA_ChinChin]

This isn't surprising at all. Chattanooga, Tennessee was the first really well know case study for this. Back in 2008 Chattanooga was having problems with ISPs offering faster or more reliable services. In 2009 the Stimulus Package included money for broadband internet expansion. The city took the money and made their own Metro Internet service since none of the private ISPs were going to do anything. They were offering 1Gbps service to customers for $80/month back in 2011 or so. Since this is a public utility, customers only have to pay for maintenance and upgrade since profit margin isn't a thing. Now Chattanooga has one of the most reliable and cheapest internet services in the country. This created a boom for companies needing reliable internet access to move into the city which created extra jobs. This also forced the private ISPs to offer faster speeds at cheaper prices to compete. However, those private ISPs also didn't want the Metro Internet to expand further than the current metro area so they lobbied (bribed) politicians in Nashville to make it illegal for public internet to expand beyond its current area. I also believe that the law says that there can be no new public ISPs either. Right now you can get 1Gbps service there for $68/month or 2.5Gbps service for $98/month. For reference I recently got 1Gbps service from AT&T and it is $80/month for 2 years where I live.

They rolled out a public utilities ran 1Gbps right now in Knoxville, TN and its pretty sweet for only $65/month. Knox utilities might be crap in a lot of ways, but their public fiber is a godsend. Makes it so that other companies in the area offer cheaper rates too so even if you don't go with the public utility fiber, you can get better prices. Unfortunately rollout has been rather slow, but it seems to be making decent progress now.

 

[jeremyj_83]

Depends on the cable. Where I am, I can get Verizon FiOS, and Comcast. Both offer 300Mbps. With FiOS it's symmetrical, with Comcast it's, uh, not.

But, when Verizon upped my monthly rate and, despite being a customer for a decade, refused to budge on it (even though new customers were getting less), I switched to Comcast.

Only AFTER the cancellation with Verizon did they send me an email saying they'd go back to my previous monthly rate. But, they lost me for a year on that.

They've done that again recently. Actually, had $39.99/month, then in November bumped it to $43.99. Two months ago, it became $49.99. Weirdly, though, that's what they're charging new customers as well.

Still, two hikes in a year, totaling a 25% jump, is a bit off-putting, and, depending on what Comcast is offering now, I might switch to them again for a year.

When DOCSIS 4 becomes the standard, we might finally have symmetrical cable internet speeds.

 

[Sluggotg]

Do we really want Google to take over the internet service provider business? They own the browser market, they have the most popular Email service. They own Android. They make their own Cell Phones. They are expanding their control of the Computer/Phone/Internet.
I hope they put pressure on the current ISP's but if they take over that part of the market, it could get very ugly. No Competition is not good.

 

[svan71]

Lol I'm on Xfinity 1200 down and a pathetic 40 up in 2024.

 

[hotaru251]

Really wish I had fiber option...tired of being charged too much for crap speeds by the monopoly in my area ;/

 

[Notton]

Do we really want Google to take over the internet service provider business? They own the browser market, they have the most popular Email service. They own Android. They make their own Cell Phones. They are expanding their control of the Computer/Phone/Internet.
I hope they put pressure on the current ISP's but if they take over that part of the market, it could get very ugly. No Competition is not good.

We don't, but the thing is though, infrastructure projects are costly.
Like you'd have to be Google, Microsoft, or Government sized to do these kinds of projects at the national level.

And out of those three, only one is publicly accountable, while the other two are shareholder driven.

I'm quite surprised Google has started to cover many suburban sprawl cities, instead of only the largest cities of the various states.

 

[tamalero]

This isn't surprising at all. Chattanooga, Tennessee was the first really well know case study for this. Back in 2008 Chattanooga was having problems with ISPs offering faster or more reliable services. In 2009 the Stimulus Package included money for broadband internet expansion. The city took the money and made their own Metro Internet service since none of the private ISPs were going to do anything. They were offering 1Gbps service to customers for $80/month back in 2011 or so. Since this is a public utility, customers only have to pay for maintenance and upgrade since profit margin isn't a thing. Now Chattanooga has one of the most reliable and cheapest internet services in the country. This created a boom for companies needing reliable internet access to move into the city which created extra jobs. This also forced the private ISPs to offer faster speeds at cheaper prices to compete. However, those private ISPs also didn't want the Metro Internet to expand further than the current metro area so they lobbied (bribed) politicians in Nashville to make it illegal for public internet to expand beyond its current area. I also believe that the law says that there can be no new public ISPs either. Right now you can get 1Gbps service there for $68/month or 2.5Gbps service for $98/month. For reference I recently got 1Gbps service from AT&T and it is $80/month for 2 years where I live.

Didn´t companies like comcast sued the government and small towns to prevent these government or community owned ISPs to keep their monopolies and only google ended breaking them?

 

[usertests]

Do we really want Google to take over the internet service provider business? They own the browser market, they have the most popular Email service. They own Android. They make their own Cell Phones. They are expanding their control of the Computer/Phone/Internet.
I hope they put pressure on the current ISP's but if they take over that part of the market, it could get very ugly. No Competition is not good.

It's pretty much impossible. They stopped expanding in 2016, only to resume recently. But they are a bit player by far.

Other ISPs can easily compete with Google's offering if they want to.

 

[jp7189]

I wonder how many folks subscribe to GFiber's 20 Gbps d/l service and then get frustrated when they can't reach those speeds on their devices, lol. Surely they give a disclaimer up front that it depends on the customer's network hardware capability?

No doubt. A 25G card for a desktop isn't that pricey, but have you ever seen the cost of a firewall that can process data that fast?

 

[jeremyj_83]

Didn´t companies like comcast sued the government and small towns to prevent these government or community owned ISPs to keep their monopolies and only google ended breaking them?

They did in some states that had communities creating public ISPs.

 

[Makaveli]

Depends on the cable. Where I am, I can get Verizon FiOS, and Comcast. Both offer 300Mbps. With FiOS it's symmetrical, with Comcast it's, uh, not.

But, when Verizon upped my monthly rate and, despite being a customer for a decade, refused to budge on it (even though new customers were getting less), I switched to Comcast.

Only AFTER the cancellation with Verizon did they send me an email saying they'd go back to my previous monthly rate. But, they lost me for a year on that.

They've done that again recently. Actually, had $39.99/month, then in November bumped it to $43.99. Two months ago, it became $49.99. Weirdly, though, that's what they're charging new customers as well.

Still, two hikes in a year, totaling a 25% jump, is a bit off-putting, and, depending on what Comcast is offering now, I might switch to them again for a year.

Sure deals and pricing are a thing but cable is technically inferior to fiber. When it comes to speed, reliably and latency it cannot be beat.