dslreports logo
 story category
Google Close To Announcing Google Fiber For Four New Cities
Last Friday we reported how indications are that Google was getting ready to announce new Google Fiber build locations in Charlotte and Raleigh. Now additional reports suggest that up to four new Google Fiber cities may be announced as soon as tomorrow. A Report by the Wall Street Journal quotes anonymous insiders who say Google Fiber will soon be announced for Atlanta, Charlotte, Raleigh and Nashville. Press invitations have been sent out for events in all four cities, notes the report:
quote:
Google recently sent invitations to local news organizations in those four cities to attend events this week, without identifying the subject. The Atlanta and Nashville events are scheduled for Tuesday, Raleigh and Charlotte on Wednesday and Durham Thursday, according to local news reports.
All four cities were of course on Google's original list of 34 potential candidate cities. "We don't have any news to share right now, but we hope to give you an update on Google Fiber early this year," Google told me when asked to comment.
view:
topics flat nest 

karpodiem
Hail to The Victors
Premium Member
join:2008-05-20
Troy, MI

4 edits

karpodiem

Premium Member

would love to see an expansion

to one of the midwest states where Comcast is jettisoning and s/RejectedLand/Greatland Communications is taking over.
bigballer
join:2014-09-25

1 recommendation

bigballer

Member

Re: would love to see an expansion

It's time for Google to expand up north and hit some mid-large sized cities.

Atlanta/Dallas so far seems to be the largest cities thus far.
existenz
join:2014-02-12

existenz

Member

Re: would love to see an expansion

Actually it's Austin, not Dallas. And it might just be a few Atlanta burbs, not city. BTW, KC metro is 2M-2.4M people depending on how you measure it - not exactly small but not a top 20 metro. So far Atlanta only top 20 metro if it's true.

bockbock
@hcs.net

bockbock to bigballer

Anon

to bigballer
Like Chicago maybe?

caster
@198.41.85.x

caster

Anon

Re: would love to see an expansion

They will need Big Tenn network alternate channels + CSN CHICAGO + CSN CHICAGO plus HD and CSN plus 2 HD there.
cahiatt
Premium Member
join:2001-03-21
Smyrna, GA

cahiatt

Premium Member

Re: would love to see an expansion

»fiber.google.com/newcities/

They are showing on their site that Atlanta is one of the included cities... Woohoo....

drjosh121
join:2002-01-06
Matthews, NC

drjosh121 to bigballer

Member

to bigballer
IF your'e going by population Charlotte is about twice as big Atlanta.
existenz
join:2014-02-12

existenz

Member

Re: would love to see an expansion

said by drjosh121:

IF your'e going by population Charlotte is about twice as big Atlanta.

Not the metro, ATL CSA is over 6M. Charlotte and KC are below 3M.

drjosh121
join:2002-01-06
Matthews, NC

drjosh121

Member

Re: would love to see an expansion

I see where you're going, but Google fiber is only going to city limits initially in Charlotte and ATL. Charlotte 792,862 ATL 447,841. I heard that they just started issuing fiber all across the county in KC so there's a chance eventually that all the Metro area could get Google, but as of right now Charlotte will be largest of the new areas.
existenz
join:2014-02-12

existenz

Member

Re: would love to see an expansion

Actually it sounds like they are doing some ATL burbs, not city. But what matters more is the market they enter. GF only announced 2 KC cities at first but now have agreements with most of KC metro burbs.

drjosh121
join:2002-01-06
Matthews, NC

drjosh121

Member

Re: would love to see an expansion

The plans I saw for Charlotte included the entire city limits, 2/3 of the county, for fiber huts, but I guess we will find out at 1pm

KennyWest
@sbcglobal.net

KennyWest to drjosh121

Anon

to drjosh121
Charlotte also has a law that says all cables must go under ground something that Google will run from as they already have. The city also will not cave to Google. Esece when they won't see service for another 5 to 10 years. Hell even Austin is behind on building. Announced over what 2years ago and no sign of a real network??? Even MSOs expand fastet when overbuilding-- aka wide open west.

drjosh121
join:2002-01-06
Matthews, NC

drjosh121

Member

Re: would love to see an expansion

I am unfamiliar with that law. I live in the county and most of the cable utilities are run from pole. All of uptown is done by conduit, but once you're five miles from the epicenter of uptown there are poles all over the place.
drjosh121

drjosh121

Member

Re: would love to see an expansion

I just heard they green lighted Charlotte for fiber. 50% on poles 50% conduits.
existenz
join:2014-02-12

existenz to drjosh121

Member

to drjosh121
Don't feed the troll. He's a known Google hater, about 75% what he posts seems made up. And he doesn't join the forum, which is questionable.

Turns out he was wrong again.
existenz

existenz

Member

Good luck to the 4 cities

Er, I don't believe in luck, so sending photon vibes your way from KC. Google Fiber is worth it, for the city in general and increased competition. But be prepared for sloooow kickoff and rollout. It'll be a while before real connections happen.

battleop
join:2005-09-28
00000

battleop

Member

Re: Good luck to the 4 cities

"and increased competition"

Ever notice that Google won't go where there they would have competition? Kinda of a pot calling the kettle black here. They want competition but only if they are going have little to no real competition.
existenz
join:2014-02-12

existenz

Member

Re: Good luck to the 4 cities

There are 10 ISPs in KC metro. Nearly all the majors are in the broader KC region (western MO, eastern KS) except VZ. Since Google arrived, TWC bumped to 300M, ATT announced Gigapower, Surewest/CC is now offering Gbit at same price and City of North KC has _free_ Gigabit (muni fiber). And Comcast apparently doesn't enforce the caps.

Seems Google first went where they could touch as many ISPs as they could in a market.

I had TWC and the signal was so poor in my condo building that I couldn't get more than 20/1 even though they offered 50. Building mgmt complained for years but TWC wouldn't do a thing (they own the wiring in building). As soon as we signed contract with Google, TWC shows up unsolicited to upgrade the cabling and allow for 300M.

Competition in action.

fuziwuzi
Not born yesterday
Premium Member
join:2005-07-01
Palm Springs, CA
Hitron EN2251
Nest H2D

fuziwuzi to battleop

Premium Member

to battleop
said by battleop:

Ever notice that Google won't go where there they would have competition?

Yeah, because Comcast and AT&T U-Verse aren't any competition in Atlanta.

battleop
join:2005-09-28
00000

battleop

Member

Re: Good luck to the 4 cities

Sorry, I wasn't clear in what I meant by competition. I'm talking about Google isn't too quick to go any place that has 1GB FTTH competition. I.E. You won't see Google headed to Chattanooga any time soon.

Comcast can be competition for Fiber, AT&T on the other hand isn't. Comcast and EPB have done a pretty good job at beating AT&T to death in Chattanooga. The only competitive edge that AT&T has over EPB and Comcast is that they are the only one that will offer a cheap plan compared to the other two.
existenz
join:2014-02-12

existenz

Member

Re: Good luck to the 4 cities

Ah, well the competition I was initially referring to was that GF does impact other ISPs in the market. But yeah, Google doesn't need to go in markets that have Gbit, it helps their overall biz model when any ISP offers a Gbit. But apparently they selected NC even though ATT is already doing Gigapower, so not sure what you mean.
Kuro
join:2014-10-01

Kuro

Member

Re: Good luck to the 4 cities

Is it already up or did they just announce it? What city hasn't AT&T announced Gigapower for? Nashvile and Atlanta are on the Gigapower city list too.
existenz
join:2014-02-12

1 edit

existenz

Member

Re: Good luck to the 4 cities

In NC? Yes, there are many who have Gigapower active now.

drjosh121
join:2002-01-06
Matthews, NC

drjosh121

Member

Re: Good luck to the 4 cities

I agree. Giga power is live in Cary and Durham. There is also a Gig telecom doing business out of wake forest. Ive also "heard" that several rural western areas have gig power, but I have not personally seen them.

battleop
join:2005-09-28
00000

battleop to existenz

Member

to existenz
"it helps their overall biz model when any ISP offers a Gbit."

That's their real motive. Google Fiber is just Google's way of forcing ISP's hand to move to fiber today instead of progressing as the needs arises. In the end Google just want's faster access to your data so they can cram more advertising down your throat.

pjcamp
@choopa.com

pjcamp to battleop

Anon

to battleop
If they come to Atlanta, they compete with AT&T, Comcast and a rather large number of DSL resellers.

KennyWest
@sbcglobal.net

KennyWest to battleop

Anon

to battleop
And only when laws are changed for them which Charlotte won't do.
bigballer
join:2014-09-25

1 recommendation

bigballer

Member

Smart

Atlanta and Nashville.

Aren't these the two cities monitored by comcast's "data cap?"

davidc502
join:2002-03-06
Mount Juliet, TN

1 edit

davidc502

Member

Re: Smart

said by bigballer:

Atlanta and Nashville.

Aren't these the two cities monitored by comcast's "data cap?"

What bigger reason to is there for Google to set up shop? People I know and talk to around these parts are so tired of Comcrap it isn't even funny. Everyone is so excited about the possibility of Google fiber.

Fortunately I'm on TDS fiber, otherwise I'd be forced to use Comcrap, but for Nashvillians, they don't have that choice.

Google Fiber could change all that.

Nameless1
join:2014-02-25
Lexington, MA

Nameless1 to bigballer

Member

to bigballer
Yeah, and if Google indeed announces this, watch the data cap in those cities suddenly be discontinued (albeit probably not right away).
Kuro
join:2014-10-01

Kuro to bigballer

Member

to bigballer
Yes they are, the brilliant bit of it is they are still called test markets so they can drop it in those two markets and still save face. I don't know what Comcast has been doing lately but their monitoring of bandwidth has gotten wonky the last couple of months. Before I was always hitting close to 95+% of my monthly cap but since November I haven't been getting past 70% with no change of my internet habits.

•••

battleop
join:2005-09-28
00000

battleop to bigballer

Member

to bigballer
Comcast's network in Nashville has to be the one of their worst markets. We monitor a lot of Comcast circuits around the country for customers and Nashville Comcast circuits send us more Nagios alerts than any other market where we monitor Comcast circuits.

davidc502
join:2002-03-06
Mount Juliet, TN

davidc502

Member

Re: Smart

Agreed...... Though my home network is on fiber, I have two Commercial Sites on Comcrap... These two sites are in high availability mode, and I get alerts every day about Comcraps network. If you're monitoring Comcrap using NNM, Nagios, SolarWinds etc, you can expect to have many false positives every day (Blips/Bouncing). Fortunately I only have to deal with 2 Sites on Comcrap.. I couldn't imagine having hundreds etc. God bless those who do because they need it.

battleop
join:2005-09-28
00000

battleop

Member

Re: Smart

Most of the problems we see are 10+ minute outages often hours. I think this month we have seen most sites with 2-3 hours during business hours. We see this both on the Coax Consumer Network and their Metro Fiber network.
delltechkid
join:2004-11-09
Hermitage, TN

delltechkid to bigballer

Member

to bigballer
YES! I'm hoping they'll mysteriously disappear...

IowaCowboy
Lost in the Supermarket
Premium Member
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA

IowaCowboy

Premium Member

Would love to see it in Springfield Mass

Give Comcast a run for their money. And help drive up our property values.

••••••••••••••
ke4pym
Premium Member
join:2004-07-24
Charlotte, NC

ke4pym

Premium Member

@KARL - Charlotte event was moved up a day to today - apparently.

»www.wsoctv.com/news/news ··· r/njxKY/

F100
join:2013-01-15
Durham, NC
Alcatel-Lucent G-010G-A
(Software) pfSense
Pace 5268AC

F100

Member

Re: @KARL - Charlotte event was moved up a day to today - apparently.

Guess Durham will still be the last on their official invitation if the Charlotte event was moved up. Interesting that this is nothing directly about Chapel Hill.

With Frontier being the LEC and AT&T supposedly building in Durham, this city may have more choice than others if Google is here too. I don't really see AT&T duplicating fiber right next to Frontier though even though they are part of the NCNGN. I don't really see Frontier deploying fiber very fast either though.

caster
@198.41.85.x

caster

Anon

Need to get the RSN rights and WTBS is not TBS any more

Need to get the RSN rights and WTBS is not TBS any more

bockbock
@hcs.net

bockbock

Anon

Tallahassee

Come to Tallahassee! You either have Comcast or CenturyLink here.

Termites
@cox.net

Termites

Anon

GA

Atlanta yes lets hope!!!!!!!!

Google has the money cox Communications don't lol...

•••
big_e
join:2011-03-05

big_e

Member

The industry shills won't be happy about this.

The MSOs/Telcos have decided that those particular cities should be under served and ignored. How dare Google exploit the market gap they left behind. When the incumbent providers decide that an area shouldn't receive any investment, that means nobody should be able to invest there, not even another corporation let alone the local government. Its the American way!
ke4pym
Premium Member
join:2004-07-24
Charlotte, NC

ke4pym

Premium Member

Charlotte Live Stream

»www.wsoctv.com/videos/ne ··· 2/vtRgs/

Announcement is being streamed live.

Banner in the background says "Charlotte - Fiber is coming"
existenz
join:2014-02-12

existenz

Member

Re: Charlotte Live Stream

All 4 cities now officially shown as 'upcoming city'....
»fiber.google.com/newcities/