Telco Parrot Scott Cleland Hates Google Fiber

Scott Cleland is a policy consultant paid by incumbent ISPs to sell his client's unfiltered Kool-Aid to reporters and politicians, and is frequently called to Washington as an "objective" industry analyst, despite his obvious role as little more than a paid parrot. You might recall that when we last saw Scott Cleland, he was busily beating up on Google for not investing in broadband infrastructure, despite billions spent on global fiber runs and storage capacity.

With Google Fiber launching last week, Cleland is back to do his masters' bidding, penning a piece for the Daily Caller (who fails to note he's a telco mouth for hire) poo poo'ing all over Google's recent 1 Gbps service launch. What's Cleland's problem with Google Fiber? Aside from his disgust at the "vile socialism" involved in Kansas City actually working with local government to improve broadband, Cleland apparently believes that because Comcast and Verizon now offer 300 Mbps tier in some markets (at $200-$300), Google Fiber just isn't necessary:

...in hyping Google Fiber’s 1,000 Mb per second offering as being “100 times faster than today’s average broadband,” Google ignores that consumers can buy 300 Mpbs broadband in the marketplace today from Verizon (and soon from Comcast and others), and that consumers choose not to buy faster available speeds because they do not yet see their utility or value.

Thus “100 times faster” is a misleading apples-to-oranges comparison of Google’s only super-fast speed offering to the lower-speed tier offerings consumers have chosen to buy. Tellingly, Google also ignores that Verizon and Cable Labs are already working on delivering bandwidth performance ten times faster than Google Fiber. Competition works.

Competition works so well, that most people in the United States are lucky if they can get 5 Mbps downstream for $50-$60 from just one ISP. Amusingly, Cleland's central argument appears to be that because consumers aren't jumping at paying $200-$300 for a broadband connection (assuming they can get it), that must mean there's simply no real interest in faster broadband. He kind of just skips over the fact that Google is offering symmetrical 1 Gbps service for just seventy bucks, and a 5 Mbps connection that's essentially free (after a $300 installation fee). It's the best selective logic telco money can buy.

While you could certainly argue that Google Fiber remains more hype than substance at this moment, there's little doubt that the deployment is getting people excited about what's possible. That's something Cleland's clients at AT&T and elsewhere have failed miserably at, focusing most of their attention on turf protection, eliminating competition, and smoke and mirrors.

In fact, the excitement surrounding Google Fiber's entry into the market clearly illustrates these companies should probably throw more money at giving consumers what they want, and less money at parrots.

----------------------------------------------------------------------- RECEIPT Sonic.net, Inc. 2260 Apollo Way Santa Rosa, CA 95407 707.522.1000 support@sonic.net Due Date: 2011-11-10 Service from 2011-11-10 to 2011-12-10 For: %Customer% <%Customer%@sonic.net> 5555 Gigash HDD Silly James, CA 95678 _______________________________________________________________________ Description Unit Price Total ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Email account user01 0.00 0.00 Email account user02 0.00 0.00 Email account user03 0.00 0.00 Email account user04 0.00 0.00 Invoice to email ********@pacbell.net 0.00 0.00 DNS example.com 1.95 1.95 Fusion Broadband - Single Line - 39.95 39.95 STI-00nnnnn-0 Fusion Broadband Information - STI-00nnnnn-0 0.00 0.00 Data $19.97 Voice $19.98 Voice Federal Subscriber Line Charge Fee 6.50 6.50 Voice Federal Universal Service Fund Fee 1.91 1.91 Voice California Lifeline Telephone Service 0.16 0.16 Surcharge Voice California Deaf and Disabled Telecom 0.03 0.03 Program Surcharge Voice California High Cost Fund-B Surcharge 0.04 0.04 Voice California Teleconnect Fund Surcharge 0.01 0.01 Voice California Advanced Services Fund 0.02 0.02 Surcharge Voice California 911 Emergency Surcharge 0.07 0.07 Voice San Jose Utility Users Tax 1.19 1.19 Fusion IP address space 173.228.nnn.nn/32 0.00 0.00 Fusion Phone Service - 4085553210 0.00 0.00 Voice California Public Utility Commission 0.03 0.03 User Fee Voice FCC Interstate Telecom Service Fee 0.04 0.04 Charge Prorate 2011-11-01 to 2011-11-10 for 0.01 0.01 Voice California Advanced Services Fund Surcharge Charge Prorated charge for DNS example.com 0.65 0.65 Total: 52.56 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

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$

What's it worth?

Bring on the 10gigabit service!

Have checked it out

Let me know when cable and VZ hit 1 Gbps

Not Socialism

He forgot it costs $70

Haters gonna hate

If nobody wants Google Fiber...

Not so Odd Couple

Why does it matter what Comcast or Verizon are doing?

registrations will tell the tale..

MA in Public Affairs

It seem so apparent now..

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Flavor Aid, not Kool-Aid

Up To clause

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