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by wtallis 95 days ago
Well, shit. Google Fiber has been the least-bad residential ISP I've dealt with. They put the fear of Competition in all the other ISPs in town, giving us an immediate free speed boost years before Google Fiber actually made it to our neighborhood.

But more than most Google projects, it's always been clear that they could at any time get bored with it and give up.
3 comments
SOLAR_FIELDS 95 days ago
I was paying IIRC $85 USD to spectrum a month for 300 down and 10 up. Google fiber came to my neighborhood a year and a half ago and offered 1gb symmetrical for $70, so 3x more down and 100x more up for less money.

I’ll actually be optimistic and say we will make it a year before the price hikes start

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otterley 95 days ago
> They put the fear of Competition in all the other ISPs in town, giving us an immediate free speed boost years before Google Fiber actually made it to our neighborhood.

It sounds like Google Fiber’s underlying mission was successful: to improve the quality of Internet experience nationwide. They didn’t even have to undertake the difficulty and expense of an actual buildout in most cases!

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ProllyInfamous 95 days ago
>the least-bad residential ISP I've dealt with

It's because lobbyists have prevented your local community from implementing anything close to what Chattanooga/EPB [0] has done with their city-owned fiber infrastructure. They literally cannot expand outside their power delivery area (by court order), and were only initially allowed to offer internet services because "it helped monitor their smartgrid technologies for power delivery." National ISPs have spent millions campaigning against EPB-like ISP expansion.

It's a racket.

[0] Electric Power Board ISP, is incredible: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPB> 300mbps synchronous fiber, $58.99/month (1gbps is ~$75; 20gps is $250), four-port fiber/copper bridge (supplied) direct to your techshed. EVERY service address gets one power-drop and one 4-fiber service drop, whether or not you use internet(s).

I don't even know why other national ISPs advertise here — they specifically lock certain apartment complexes into EPB-exclusion contracts... and don't tell potential renters this during leasing/contracts. It's shitty.

It's a racket.

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