Google Fiber

AT&T took some not so subtle shots at Google Fiber recently. This happening among rumors of Google Fiber downsizing it's personnel and moving to a more wireless-centric solution. Everyone seems to be asking what's up with Google Fiber? An interesting observation from the AT&T post:

February 2010: Google announces its intent to build ultra-high-speed fiber-fed broadband networks with plans to serve around five million subscribers in five years; 1100 cities respond to Google’s Request for Information in an effort to become a Google Fiber City.
Today: Google Fiber has deployed a fiber network in parts of seven out of the 1100 interested cities, but otherwise hits the pause button as Google Fiber learns something we’ve known for over a hundred years – deploying communications networks is hard and takes an enormous amount of time, money and skilled labor.

Emphasis added. There are a lot of risks and hurdles in building a fiber network. An interesting take-away for many municipalities looking to build their own FTTH projects. Don't underestimate the risks and costs involved in such projects!

DOCSIS 3.1 vs. FTTH

Interesting look at the differences between DOCSIS 3.1 and FTTH.

To me this was the key take-away:

There is no debate that an entire network built with fiber-optic cable is the way to go if you are building a network from scratch or replacing a legacy copper wire network. 

Seems common sense to most but needs to be said for others.

FTTH Take-Rates

Fiber Maven (via Telecompetitor) reports approximately 28 million homes passed with FTTH with an average 50% penetration.

One must assume that "penetration" means the same as "take-rate". The unanswered question is how many of those 28 million homes passed were FiOS, U-Verse or cable overbuilds?

TWC Misleading Customers on Internet Speeds

The NY State Attorney General is troubled by the way Time Warner Cable handles customer service and how their advertised Internet speed don't match up with reality.

Misleading Internet speeds are pretty common and you would almost expect that sort of flim-flam marketing from companies like TWC or Comcast. What concerns me is the almost willful suspension of reality when it comes to so-called Gigabit Cities.

I get about 16-18 Gbps from my Charter connection but my bill says I'm supposed to get 30 Mbps. I'm not too upset about that because I understand contention and my speeds are at least better than 50% of what I'm supposed to be getting. But what about subscribers in FTTH builds who are supposed to be getting "up to 1 Gbps" on their new fiber connection only to top out at 100 Mbps when doing a speed test in the middle of the night and much less when doing a speed test during normal hours?

What's worse and what's more misleading - Charter giving me 18 Mbps from my 30 Mbps connection or getting 100 Mbps or less on a supposed Gigabit connection? There's a pressure on many of these fiber builds to attach the name Gigabit to their build and at the same time set customer expectations that the engineers know are not realistic. I don't agree with the practice and it is becoming way too common.

Verizon's Fiber is the Only Fix Program

The Motley Fool looks into why Verizon is refusing to fix problems for some customers.

While the "Fiber is the Only Fix" program is fine for customers who live in areas that have fiber - what about all the rural customers whose only choice is decades old copper lines? Many of the customers who live in these areas have come to expect poor service on their old copper lines any time it rains. Many real estate agents trying to sell homes in these areas beg the sellers not to disconnect their existing DSL service because if they do then in many cases Verizon will not offer DSL to the new homeowner. These are real and major issues for people living in these areas.

Fiber truly is the only fix for those people living in such broadband deserts but not in the way that Verizon imagined.

Verizon and NG-PON2

Interesting development by Verizon.

If Verizon chooses NG-PON2 as their standard of choice then that could spell real problems for real-world adoption of XGS-PON.

RS Fiber - Calix Success Story

Interesting example of a Public/Private FTTH Partnership in Minnesota.

The Internet rates are very competitive.

Speeds and Feeds

Researchers achieve fastest ever data transfer at a speed of 1.125 Tbps. Wow!

Couple of things - the article shows fiber even though the data ran directly from the transmitter to the receiver. Fiber will be added in between at a later date. For an example of how fast 1.125 Tbps is the article stated that speed would allow the transfer of the entire HD collection of Game of Thrones in one second. Another real world example of how this speed may come in handy - consider that the fans in the stands at the recent Super Bowl in San Francisco used 91 Terabytes of data on their mobile devices just taking pictures and videos of the spectacle. Data transfer speeds of this magnitude are going to be needed in the near future.

Can Broadband Really Save a Home $10,000 a Year?

Interesting position that having access to high speed broadband can save an average household more than $10,000 a year.

It was based on the household paying $120 / month for broadband and did not take into account the increase in the value of the home that having broadband creates.

Interesting.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting and thought I'd share.

- Facebook's ad revenue provides solid evidence on the growing importance of smart phones, tablets and pads.

- Interesting analysis of Comcast's business model. Basically Comcast was a cable company with awful customer service but is morphing into a broadband provider with awful customer service.

- Cool 2-minute FiberFacts video

- 5 companies grab 70% of your online dollars

- Fiber based broadband the new greatest thing for electrical co-op's

The Genius of Google Fiber

Yes - Google fiber has had a ripple effect but I wonder if this is unintended or genius.

Google is not going to make buckets of money from being a fiber to the home (FTTH) provider. They make their money by selling ads on the Internet and the higher the bandwidth speeds and more readily bandwidth happens to be across the country - the more ads on the Internet people will see and the more money Google will rake in.

Has their fiber installation in Kansas City and their planned systems in Austin and Provo caused other providers to roll out more upgrades in more areas? Yes. A great kick in the ass for fiber deployment.

Genius!