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Google Fiber

1,034 Views | 5 Replies | Last: 1 yr ago by Nom de Plume
mike073
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AG
Trying to understand their business plan. Currently here in San Antonio they are grooving street after street in two different neighborhoods to lay their fiber cables. They dig holes in about a third of the yards and leave behind a plastic plate with all kinds of wires in the ground that will apparently tie a house into the street cable when ready. I wonder how many customers in a given neighborhood they will need to make any kind of business sense - 10%? 25%? Half?

Why not hang them from the existing telephone poles?

Anyone know about this from other areas or cities?
Gig 'em Aggies!

HumpitPuryear
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AG
mike073 said:

Trying to understand their business plan. Currently here in San Antonio they are grooving street after street in two different neighborhoods to lay their fiber cables. They dig holes in about a third of the yards and leave behind a plastic plate with all kinds of wires in the ground that will apparently tie a house into the street cable when ready. I wonder how many customers in a given neighborhood they will need to make any kind of business sense - 10%? 25%? Half?

Why not hang them from the existing telephone poles?

Anyone know about this from other areas or cities?
Google doesn't own the poles and likely either can't get access to the poles, the poles are structurally tapped out, or the owner of the poles wants too much money. Market penetration really depends on what the other options are. Google models this stuff pretty critically so they think they can make it pay. Either that or they've made some kind of deal with the city or developer.

ETA that this is more than just internet access. Google will be offering package deals on internet, phone, and TV services, home automation, etc, etc so average billing can end up being quite a bit more than $49 internet access.
mike073
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Both neighborhoods are not really middle America - more like older, slightly upper middle class. Lots of over 60 type folks. Not really gamer kind of folks. Seems odd for this super high speed internet business. May be a test of some sort.
Gig 'em Aggies!

slappy
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AG
I'm in an older neighborhood in-town in SA and got it about a year ago. I've got a hunch they're thinking about these older neighborhoods getting turned over to younger folks buying homes. Regardless, it's nice to have.
dallasiteinsa02
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After watching Metronet lay right next to Optimum (Suddenlink), I have come to the conclusion that there must be some kind of federal money that they are tapping into that is making the numbers work.
Nom de Plume
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Google Fiber is not using federal money. Every other provider I'm aware of is.
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