http://gigaom.com/2013/04/06/as-aus...you-need-a-gig-even-if-you-dont-think-you-do/ http://business.time.com/2013/04/08...austin-tx-as-cities-race-to-boost-web-speeds/ There are a few articles about it. I'm very happy to hear this news. Now I just have to figure out how to get them to my neighborhood.
This is the real reason Kim Jong Un wants to nuke Austin. He was jealous you guys were getting Google Fiber before him.
No, it's a lousy joke under any circumstance. Too forced, too strained a connection. Now Tex' response on the other hand, that was funny.
To be fair I misread his comment. I get the "joke" he made but he lost me at the needing to hate California liberals part.
"In Kansas City, Google offers residents seven years of free Internet service at current broadband speeds, after a $300 installation fee. Superfast 1-gigabit Internet service costs $70 per month, and the top bundle, which includes Google’s TV service, costs $120 per month. (The $300 installation fee is waived for the latter two offerings.)" Google just needs to make a huge roll of the dice and say, "We are going into all 50 states next year." I would drop Comcast cable in a heartbeat. I'd also drop DirecTV. IN. A. FUCKING. HEARTBEAT.
Hmm. I've got an ex-gf who lives near Austin, might just have to turn on the charm and see if I can't worm my way into [-]her fiber[/-] heart.
I just applied for Google Fiber. Obviously I can't get it down here. But it lets them know that at least someone in my zip code wants it. I'm going to recommend to all my friends and family to do the same. You guys should do the same thing.
^How does one apply for Google Fiber? Unrelated to Zombie's post: Google Fiber has cost less than $100 million to launch so far TLDR: $42 million in Kansas and $52 million in Missouri. Analysts expect the cost to launch Google Fiber in Austin will be around the same price or lower.
You sign up for it by going to Google Fiber and putting in your address. Obviously unless you live where it is you will get denied but they of course now have your address and zip code. And you can sign up for email alerts on it.
Oh, neat. Looks like Google might facing some competition in Austin: AT&T announces plans for 1Gbps fiber service in Austin, Texas; Google gets immediate competition Ultimately it's a good thing that there will be some competition, because too many telecom monopolies and oligopolies exist in many markets.
Yeah, it's doubtful that they would even offer the free service that Google is offering. Still, it's good that at least one ISP is worried enough to step up their game.
Know where this'd be great? San Francisco. Know where this is never going to happen because of local politics? San Francisco. We've got municipal fiber that no one can hook up to because of the red tape involved. I don't think there's a single non-city institution hooked up to it, not even UCSF.
It's going to cities that already have a lot of the fiber in place. Provo is almost completely wired without Google having to do anything. Austin has some of the network in place and is a huge Tech city. KC already had an extensive network and some other aspects that made it an easy rollout. Whoever is chosen 4th will likely be similar. If your city isn't fiber ready or there are too many hoops to jump through politically I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you.
I didn't see this thread here and opened a similar one in the red room, sorry. That said, in the other thread I did link to a report from Wired.com about Google Fiber's roll out in Provo, UT and there the installation fee had dropped to just $30 (not $300) but they were still offering a free gigabit connection for the first seven years to all takers. You'd have to be a fool to pass that up because my sometimes 10 mb download speed cable connection from Time Warner is $32.50 a month and that's after I really looked out for deals (I was switching back and forth between ATT and TW fairly often for a while there). Hell, I'd ditch TW and would save ~$420 a year for seven years or ~$2940. Not bad especially since the connection would be 100 times faster.
