As it stands, Google has been picking low-hanging fruit when it comes to where they deploy Google Fiber. Most of the markets selected so far suffer from the fairly typical cable/phone duopoly, where a lack of real competition has resulted in high prices and sub-par speeds. In Provo, Utah, for example, Google Fiber's closest competition is CenturyLink, a company that is to cutting edge broadband speeds what Lindsay Lohan is to acting excellence.
It remains unlikely that Google Fiber will ever truly see
broad deployment. There's also so
many struggling duopoly-locked United States broadband markets, Google has plenty of great target markets to chose from without having into dive into more competitive (and ROI eroding) markets. Verizon, for what it's worth, doesn't ever see a scenario where
Google Fiber comes in direct competition with FiOS out east:
quote:
"From my perspective, Google Fiber's model says that they want folks to use broadband because that's how they monetize their search engines," (said Verizon CFO Fran Shammo). "By doing what they are doing they are forcing everyone to step up their game, provide more throughput to the home, but FiOS already does that." Shammo added that "we compete vigorously in the FiOS footprint and I highly doubt Google will build anything in the FiOS area."
As for 1 Gbps speeds, Verizon insists they could do that, they just choose not to:
quote:
"Google has a lot of spin around delivering 1 Gig to the home, but we did that almost three years ago in New York City to a home," Shammo said. "It's great and we can do it."
While Verizon did
bump FiOS speeds last year, their focus lately has been on
raising prices to recoup their deployment costs -- and then some. The competitive pressure historically felt by Cablevision has waned as Cablevision begins to struggle, and the decrease in competitive pressure has allowed them to start milking subscribers with rate hikes. The very last thing Verizon wants is Google Fiber coming to town and ruining that fun with $70, symmetrical 1 Gbps connections.
