So Google fiber has landed in my neighborhood, and they are digging up the street to lay it. This is a BIG job, with loads of workers and heavy equipment. What I don't understand is WHY. Grande, AT&T and Spectrum all run cables on poles. In my neighborhood, there is no restriction on doing that. Hanging cables on poles is vastly, vastly cheaper than excavating roadways. So why is Google spending oodles of money to do this? Even running the connection from the street to the house is a matter of excavation, in digging up yards and restoring lawns. They started out with a big survey, to identify gas line feeds to avoid compromising them.
Now, clearly a buried cable is pretty immune to tree limbs falling and vandalism. But in my thirty years here, I've seen one instance of a cable break because of that, and it required one guy and a ladder to fix it.
The street workers said that decision was above their pay grade, but confided to me that Google started out hanging cables, and then decided to bury them.
Does any one have a clue about this? Why is Google throwing so much money at this? What fiscal advantage does this give them over the other up-on-poles internet providers?
Now, clearly a buried cable is pretty immune to tree limbs falling and vandalism. But in my thirty years here, I've seen one instance of a cable break because of that, and it required one guy and a ladder to fix it.
The street workers said that decision was above their pay grade, but confided to me that Google started out hanging cables, and then decided to bury them.
Does any one have a clue about this? Why is Google throwing so much money at this? What fiscal advantage does this give them over the other up-on-poles internet providers?