[rayiner]

Google has admitted that they're just doing deployments like Kansas City to push other ISP's into offering higher speed services, which benefits their bottom line as a content provider. If the opportunity was really worthwhile on its own merits, Google would pursue Google Fiber as an actual business. So essentially, Kansas City made a sweetheart deal with the only company that agreed to take it, and that company only took it because they had an ulterior motive. That's a recipe for abuse, and if it had been Comcast rather than Google, people would be up in arms.

[nitrogen]

The major cable companies are also content companies, too. Comcast/NBC, Time Warner/Time Warner. Nobody has clean hands. So I say it's worth giving a new player a shot at doing better, rather than conceding the market to the existing monopolies.

[jessaustin]

So both the government and Google left money on the table, so as to benefit the consumer?

I can see why everyone is bitching about that.