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Google Fiber Mulls Los Angeles, Chicago Expansion

posted by cmn32480 on Thursday December 10 2015, @08:02AM   Printer-friendly
from the faster-faster-faster dept.

takyon writes:

Google Fiber Internet service may be expanding to the Los Angeles and Chicago areas in the future:

Google Fiber, Alphabet's fast Internet service, said Tuesday it is planning to come to Los Angeles and Chicago, the second and third-largest U.S. cities by population, if they pass a long review.

"While we can't guarantee that we'll be able to bring Fiber to Chicago and L.A., this is a big step for these cities and their leaders," Jill Szuchmacher, director of Google Fiber's expansion efforts, wrote in a blog. "Expansion planning for a project of this size is a huge undertaking."

There are now 20 cities where Google Fiber is providing service already, building its network or considering building, including Atlanta and Austin. The 20 metro areas contain about 5% of the total U.S. population and include six of the 10 largest U.S. cities by population. Its expansion plans have become a lot more aggressive since Google re-organized itself into the Alphabet holding company earlier this year. The goal is to give newer businesses more freedom to invest while making them more accountable for their financial performance.

The Los Angeles Times reckons that Google will be looking for concessions:

[More after the break.]

To better qualify for Google Fiber, L.A. will have to adhere to a checklist developed by the company that includes "efficient and predictable" permitting, access to city property for network hubs and the appointment of a person to deal directly with the company. The goal is to streamline the process to reduce the risk that a city may not be ready.

"In the past, municipalities would ask for significant concessions like 100% coverage or building connections to schools. It was really hard to get into a new area," said Jan Dawson, chief analyst at Jackdaw Research. "What Google has done is turn the model on its head by saying, 'If you want us to build fiber, what are you going to do for us?'"

[...] Google Fiber is currently available in three cities: Kansas City, Mo.; Provo, Utah; and Austin, Texas. The service will soon roll out in six other places: Salt Lake City [UT]; Atlanta [GA]; San Antonio {TX]; Nashville [TN]; and Charlotte [NC]; and Raleigh-Durham, NC. The company is also trying to bring Google Fiber to San Diego [CA], Irvine [CA] and Chicago [IL], which was named alongside L.A. in Tuesday's announcement.

AT&T recently brought U-Verse gigabit Internet service to Chicago.

Announcement at the Google Fiber blog.

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Friday December 11 2015, @01:22AM

    by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Friday December 11 2015, @01:22AM (#274742) Journal

    Does this service require an actively used login to google's software services?

    It seems to require a Google Account for billing, which it sends to you in the form of email. That's it.

    If you’d prefer not to have Fiber usage impact your existing Google Account, you might consider creating a new Google Account to use for Google Fiber. If you create a new Google Account to use Fiber, it will remain separate from your other Google Accounts—Google does not link your Google Accounts in any way, and Google will not combine or share information between your Google Accounts, unless you chose to.

    I do not recall anyone singing the praises of a google customer call center and the support they provide; I am curious to see how people are allowed to use the service.

    Google customer service has always been pretty bad. Or more accurately, human hands-off. I imagine it is better in the era of paying Google Fiber customers, with greatly improved chances of talking to a human on the phone.

    http://imgur.com/BbVkC6H [imgur.com]
    https://www.reddit.com/comments/3qposc [reddit.com]
    https://www.reddit.com/r/google/comments/2askox/best_customer_service_chat_ever_google_fiber/ [reddit.com]

    I know they were forbidding servers for a while, but I really do not know restrictions they have now that it has been rolled out to other metro areas and they've had a chance to learn what people do with an always on connection...

    They changed that after pressure from EFF and others:

    Our Terms of Service prohibit running a server for commercial purposes. However, personal, non-commercial usage of servers that complies with our Acceptable Use Policy is acceptable, including using virtual private networks (VPN) to access services in your home, and using hardware or applications that include server capabilities for uses like multi-player gaming, video-conferencing, and home security.

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