Google picks KCK/KCMO for ultra fast fiber network

[flyingember]

This has always pissed me off, since I feel that they should be the ones coming to my house to replace their faulty equipment. I see their vans parked in my neighborhood constantly, so how hard would it be to schedule a swap-out that would save me a long drive to their customer service office?

that also leads to one big hole in Time Warner's service.

say you get home after work and your internet is out, your modem won't light up so it's obvious. they're open 9-6 on weekdays. so odds are you need to make a special trip during business hours the next day. for many that's not enough time to call, wait, troubleshoot, and then drive to the store. the locations are bad. for KC, there's one store for clay-platte, one for jackson, one for wyandotte, one for johnson. so 4 stores for the entire metro.

and if you have to go on the weekend they open two locations Saturday only.

[kcjak]

This has always pissed me off, since I feel that they should be the ones coming to my house to replace their faulty equipment. I see their vans parked in my neighborhood constantly, so how hard would it be to schedule a swap-out that would save me a long drive to their customer service office?

that also leads to one big hole in Time Warner's service.

say you get home after work and your internet is out, your modem won't light up so it's obvious. they're open 9-6 on weekdays. so odds are you need to make a special trip during business hours the next day. for many that's not enough time to call, wait, troubleshoot, and then drive to the store. the locations are bad. for KC, there's one store for clay-platte, one for jackson, one for wyandotte, one for johnson. so 4 stores for the entire metro.

and if you have to go on the weekend they open two locations Saturday only.

Yeah - I got my Google Fiber on Friday and wanted to dump my Time Warner stuff the next day...had to drive all the way to Barry Road to do it in person. While I was waiting to talk to someone there was a CONSTANT stream of customers bringing in malfunctioning remotes and modems. I overheard one employee tell a customer that her internet was running slow because her modem was old and not capable of handling the greater speeds they currently offer. I had no idea that my modem needed replacing...and I work with tech!

[KCtonic]

A comprehensive (I think) list of multi-tenant properties who have entered into agreements with Google Fiber:

https://fiber.google.com/intl/es-419/he ... index.html

I see a significant number of rent-only lofts/apartments missing from the list. Before we left old townley I remember office staff repeatedly telling us they were getting Google Fiber and not to worry... Guess that was another thing they were wrong about.

[flyingember]

A comprehensive (I think) list of multi-tenant properties who have entered into agreements with Google Fiber:

https://fiber.google.com/intl/es-419/he ... index.html

I see a significant number of rent-only lofts/apartments missing from the list. Before we left old townley I remember office staff repeatedly telling us they were getting Google Fiber and not to worry... Guess that was another thing they were wrong about.

it's not comprehensive.

[earthling]

My condo building recently signed agreement but won't string up units until Jan. TWC shortly after came to our building to upgrade cabling/signaling to allow for 100Mbps. I called TWC to see what they'd offer, telling them my building signed with Google. Is $95 for 100Mbps down and only 5mbps up. I said I'd stick with them (well for a few months) if they could offer it for $45. Best they could do was $65. I said 'so you are offering 100/5 for $65 and Google offers 1000/1000 for $70, what do you think I would do." She said that is what she is allowed to offer. TWC is not trying very hard and they lost 300K customers last quarter.

Give it a shot, if you are actually ready to cancel on the spot, TWC might give better deal.

[bobbyhawks]

My condo building recently signed agreement but won't string up units until Jan. TWC shortly after came to our building to upgrade cabling/signaling to allow for 100Mbps. I called TWC to see what they'd offer, telling them my building signed with Google. Is $95 for 100Mbps down and only 5mbps up. I said I'd stick with them (well for a few months) if they could offer it for $45. Best they could do was $65. I said 'so you are offering 100/5 for $65 and Google offers 1000/1000 for $70, what do you think I would do." She said that is what she is allowed to offer. TWC is not trying very hard and they lost 300K customers last quarter.

Give it a shot, if you are actually ready to cancel on the spot, TWC might give better deal.

The thing that makes me most angry is that they are willing to drop their price 32% for the exact same service, yet they wonder why people get angry with them when you have to yell at someone for an hour to get even that deal. I have not heard of anyone haggling with Google for a better price. Essentially, the deal is the deal. Businesses that are secretly willing to drop to a lower price almost always come across as dishonest. Car salesman, Amini's Galleria, etc.

Cable Co's have basically kept customers on the brink by lowering prices, rolling prices back up slowly and secretly, then offering all sorts of "free" stuff that you have to pay extra for. I think they still advertise that HD is "free." That is like McDonald's saying that lettuce on a cheeseburger is free. I'm actually going to be paying more (for way more services) with Google, but I am happy to do business with someone who is honest and straightforward with pricing. That shine may wear off, but it is amazing how honest a car salesman gets when he hears about the price the other guy is offering.

[smh]

it's not comprehensive.

This is not helpful. If you see an issue with the list, a building missing, etc.--point it out. Saying it isn't comprehensive is just a dick move.

[flyingember]

it's not comprehensive.

This is not helpful. If you see an issue with the list, a building missing, etc.--point it out. Saying it isn't comprehensive is just a dick move.

not really. as I don't work for google I have no way or providing integrity to the list no matter what I do. what I can logically do is impact illegitimacy using the information I do have. telling or not telling a single building doesn't help improve the quality of the list as that point.

only Google can do that.

Incidently, it's the Union Carbide building that's missing. fiber installation was underway this week. so it's possible that's the completed building list, it also could be a snapshot from an unknwon period of time. I saw a plaza-area building that got fiber installed back in August was on the list.

[KCtonic]

it's not comprehensive.

This is not helpful. If you see an issue with the list, a building missing, etc.--point it out. Saying it isn't comprehensive is just a dick move.

not really. as I don't work for google I have no way or providing integrity to the list no matter what I do. what I can logically do is impact illegitimacy using the information I do have. telling or not telling a single building doesn't help improve the quality of the list as that point.

only Google can do that.

Incidently, it's the Union Carbide building that's missing. fiber installation was underway this week. so it's possible that's the completed building list, it also could be a snapshot from an unknwon period of time. I saw a plaza-area building that got fiber installed back in August was on the list.

My building, Conover Place is on the list and installation is underway now fwiw.

[cknab1]

In Crown Center, both the San Francisco Tower and Santa Fe Place are being wired. This is a total of 245 units. It's taking a long time and I think they are about 70% done. After that they will go live and we will start getting our individual appointments for service. The contractors have been amazed they have to drill thru 8 inches of concrete between each floor to run the fiber. Google did not want to run the fiber in our normal conduit. I guess they were worried about noise or interference with the cable and phones lines. But this approach, although much better in the long run, is costing Google a lot of money. I'm glad they are doing it right, rather than the cheapest way possible.

[earthling]

^Are you saying that nearly all units are switching to Google, even 50% actual take would be impressive. My building is over 100 units and had about 80% pre-registration, I'm thinking we may hit 50% actually subscribing.

[cknab1]

While I was on the Board, we agreed to pay the $300 for each unit from our reserve. It seems like a good deal to both get qualified and help maintain the over all value of our building. The Tower did the same. We were actually at 102% registered since a few of us, myself included, had all ready registered.

[cknab1]

So although not everyone will sign up for additional services, the Google box will be in every unit. So they will at least have the free internet for the next 9 years. Google gave us 9 years instead of 7 since we had early 100% pre-registration. I'm getting the internet+ TV package.

[earthling]

Ah cool, I just checked with my building and we are doing the same, free 5M for all however it sounds like at least 50% signed up for 1G and/or TV as well.

[flyingember]

Google did not want to run the fiber in our normal conduit. I guess they were worried about noise or interference with the cable and phones lines. But this approach, although much better in the long run, is costing Google a lot of money. I'm glad they are doing it right, rather than the cheapest way possible.

unlike some other carriers they're running their fiber much closer to bare, not in a bigger protecting shield. so it's likely they don't want any other carrier having access to their conduit for this reason

cable and phones can't interfere with light pulses so it's not that.

[chrizow]

Folks with Google Fiber: We are considering the "free" plan with slower internet. In your experience will this be fast enough to stream Netflix/Hulu/etc. without major frustration? Would it help if the Apple TV is plugged directly into the modem (vs. wireless)?

[earthling]

The short answer is that streaming video works fine on the 'free' service but the quality of video may decrease at times depending on how much other activity is going on your connection - like if you are downloading a file from work while also watching Netflix. If you have two devices streaming video at same time, the video quality will likely be lower for both (maybe DVD quality or lower) on the 'free' service.

More detail... You will be able to stream Netflix and others with the 'free' Gfiber service (the speed is 5Mbps or 5M) but it may at times not be in HD. Netflix standard HD (720 HD) streams typically use well under 4M however they are now doing "SuperHD" (1080 HD) that needs over 5M to around 7M - so you can't do Netflix SuperHD. The video quality will adjust to how much bandwidth (speed) you have available at the time. I imagine that Gfiber could maintain 5M consistently. It will be more of an issue if you have other things in house also actively accessing the net at same time, then Netflix might 'step down' the quality of connection to 'standard video', which is still not bad, like DVD quality. Should work fine at any quality level except SuperHD and even higher quality streams coming in future. Hulu/Youtube and others also adjust video quality depending on how much speed available at the time. They all use well under 5M as far as I know but in the future as they bump up video quality, more than 5M dedicated will be needed if you want highest video quality.

Direct connect vs. wireless shouldn't matter for only 5M, newer wireless routers tend to do at least 300M and older ones likely do over 10M if not too far away from devices.

If you are heavy internet users, it may not be enough but if wanting to get by with free and not concerned about video quality, it can work. If you work from home at times and connect into work, 5M could be an issue depending on how you access work and if pulling down or pushing up documents. In general if you often work from home connected to work, a Gbit would probably be worth it but 5M might be somewhere between frustrating to acceptable so can start out with it and bump up later if needing Gbit. The free 5M service only does 1M upload so uploading/pushing a file to work would take about 5 times longer than downloading/pulling a file from work. The Gigabit service is 1000 up and 1000 down, would be nearly instant if work connection is also fast.

[chrizow]

great, that is useful information, thank you. we never watch anything where video quality matters, and don't really care about it. sometimes our netflix connection with time warner will degrade to the point of being pretty pixelated and it doesn't bother us. buffering, and service interruptions, are extremely aggravating though. like 20% of the time we'll just get a "sorry that content is not available right now" and i have to re-boot the blu-ray and start again. we are switching to apple TV and hope to be able to stream netflix with fewer problems.

[earthling]

TWC has to deal with congestion of other users in your neighborhood at peak hours. Sometimes it's congestion with connection from TWC to Netflix/others. Google can more likely give you a consistent 5M connection given the network is designed for everyone to have nearly 1000M (1 gigabit). As long as you have no other activity on your own connection, you should be able to get standard HD but it could step down a notch to DVD quality - sounds like you're content with even lower.

A 5M connection is still pretty tight but you could start with it then upgrade later. Check with Google if they give you $300 back if later deciding to do full Gbit with 2 year contract. Or maybe they keep $300 but you can upgrade to Gbit with no contract. Not sure how that works.

For those interested, here's the internet connection rate Netflix recommends per video quality. The streams actually use less than this but they suggest a little higher available to sustain the video quality.

Low quality - <1M (Megabit)
DVD - 3M
Standard HD - 5M
SuperHD - 7M
3D HD - 12M
4K - 15-17M (requires expensive 4K TVs)

[flyingember]

from the google fiber blog

It’s been one year since our first customers got hooked up with Google Fiber and we’ve been growing quickly, right alongside the KC tech scene. So far, over half of local fiberhoods have Fiber service and we plan to be done with our entire first wave of installations in early 2014.

...

So what’s next? We know that folks in Kansas City North and South Kansas City, Mo. have been waiting for service, so we plan to open sign-ups and start installations soon. Look out for more info in February of next year.