The Next Big Fiber Showdown: Austin 230
Nerval's Lobster writes "Google might have big plans to wire America with high-speed broadband, but at least one carrier isn't willing to let Google Fiber have a free run: AT&T has announced that it will deploy a '100 percent fiber' network in Austin, Texas, capable of delivering speeds of up to 1GB per second. That location is auspicious, given how Google's already decided to make Austin the next city to receive Google Fiber. Whereas Google plans on connecting Austin households to its network in mid-2014, however, AT&T promises to start deploying its own high-speed solution in December. But there's a few significant catches. First, AT&T's service will initially roll out to 'tens of thousands of customer locations throughout Austin' (according to a press release), which is a mere fraction of the city's 842,592 residents; second, AT&T has offered no roadmap for expanding beyond that initial base; and third, despite promises that the service will roll out in December, the carrier has yet to choose the initial neighborhoods for its expansion. Could this be a case of a carrier freaking out about a new company's potential to disrupt its longtime business?"
They haven't decided because Google hasn't... (Score:5, Interesting)
They haven't decided where to install because Google hasn't. It will be predatory installation. That means they will install the system only where Google does and will only offer competitive prices to those who can get Google service. They do this to anyone that tries to overbuild.
Good luck to them (Score:5, Interesting)
I really enjoyed calling up to cancel after Google connected our house.
"Why are you cancelling?"
"I found a better service."
"Can I ask what?"
"Sure, I found 1,0000 Mbps for $70/mo"
"Well. I can offer you 14Mbps for $40/mo"
They followed up with a letter just yesterday saying how they were surprised I canceled since they have such a great service and offering a $300 gift card for re-upping. As far as I can tell they have no strategy for dealing with competing fiber rollouts and Austin doesn't sound like one either.
Re:As planned? (Score:3, Interesting)
The other interesting thing here is that, at least in my city, there is a "comparable performance clause" in the agreement between the city and AT&T/Time Warner for the Phone/Cable monopoly.
It basically states that if another area gets quantifiable better speeds/options, they need to justify why it's economically infeasable to provide the same level of service in my community or they risk losing their license to a competitor who can. There are some limitations (like the deployment being in the same state) and it would mean that the city counsel would have to fight it and likely a legal battle afterward, but it is a route where a door could be opened to requiring big players to upgrade service to levels equivalent to Google if they try to fight in select areas instead of their whole service area.
die in a fire at&t (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:And who cares? (Score:4, Interesting)
> Fiber has zero value as a "utility for society".
Bullshit. The value of fiber isn't just the value it brings to people willing to spend tens of thousands of dollars per month for an OC-12 today, it's the value it brings to people who'll find cool ways to enjoy having the equivalent of an OC-12 for slightly more than they're paying for shit DSL or cable today, amortized over the next 25-100 years (since buried fiber is basically a 50-100+ year capital investment).
If the federal government had any common sense, it would be taking advantage of its ability to borrow money at near-zero interest rates and making low-interest loans available to finance laying open-access fiber across America like there's no tomorrow. AT&T won't spend $10,000 laying fiber to a customer, because any horizon more than 5 years away represents too much capital risk, few customers could afford to cough up $10,000 (or even pay it off over some short period like 5 years that's a fraction of its useful life), and AT&T won't voluntarily share a fiber with anyone, because it likes keeping customers locked in. Even if the government burned $20,000 laying the same fiber and passed along the cost, it could be financed over 50 years for less than $60/month, interest included. And with inflation, by the time those last 10 years arrived, $60/month would seem as silly as a 12c/month luxury surtax on telephone service to finance the Spanish-American War.