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Google Networking Technology

Google Starts Running Fiber In Kansas City 118

Posted by samzenpus from the lets-get-it-started-in-here dept.
New submitter Kiyyik writes "After weeks of wrangling over shared space on utility poles, Google and the KC Board of Public Utilities have gotten their act together and Google is starting to wire Kansas City, Kansas today. They will be paying attachment fees and hanging the fiber optic lines in the space on the poles reserved for telecommunications. The Kansas City, Missouri side is still on track to begin a few months behind the Kansas side."
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Google Starts Running Fiber In Kansas City More

Google Starts Running Fiber In Kansas City

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  • is going to be our Overlord.

    • Re:Google (Score:5, Insightful)

      by petteyg359 ( 1847514 ) on Monday February 06, 2012 @01:04PM (#38944049) Homepage

      They'll be a better overlord than AT&T...

      • Re:Google (Score:5, Informative)

        by peragrin ( 659227 ) on Monday February 06, 2012 @01:38PM (#38944425)

        Most likely not. However google is laying fiber where AT&T won't even update its breaking copper in most cities.

        • Doesn't that make them a 'better overlord?
      • AT&T is not the main problem on the Missouri side. It's Time Warner Cable. We've had enough of their outages, bandwidth slowing to a crawl, and insisting any problem is the router rather than the cable modem. I don't know what kind of deal they had with the city government but for years there has been no other real option. And AT&T's option doesn't seem like a real option here, just based on previous experiences with their DSL. I don't trust Google any more than Time Warner, but nothing but good can

    • going to be? dont you mean already is?

    • What an inspiration to every Computer Major in college. Knowing that they too can grow up to rule the world.
  • As a Kansas City, MO resident it is exciting to see this happening here.

    • Re:I can't wait (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 06, 2012 @01:11PM (#38944125)

      and as a non-Kansas City resident I would like to say "I hope you choke on your gigabit... that glorious wonderfull gigabit..."

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Alyred ( 667815 )
        Yes, it's somewhat sad that one of the states that is the most adverse to science and knowledge will now be one of the fastest being able to receive it.
    • Isn't that tornado country? Wouldn't hanging fiber just mean you're going to 'rehang' it in a few years?

      Just seems like burying it is going to be the better option...sure it's more expensive, but this is G$$gle we're talking about :)

      • Re:I can't wait (Score:5, Interesting)

        by SJHillman ( 1966756 ) on Monday February 06, 2012 @01:16PM (#38944187)

        It's going on existing utility poles, which tells me two things:
        1) It's much, much cheaper for the initial implementation as well as any additions or repairs later on compared to burying it
        2) The poles already exist, so tornadoes are likely already accounted for by the existing infrastructure

        • Re:I can't wait (Score:5, Informative)

          by Shatrat ( 855151 ) on Monday February 06, 2012 @01:25PM (#38944285)

          You're correct. I work in this industry.
          UG fiber is several times more expensive per mile than Aerial fiber. It's somewhat less vulnerable to cuts, but much more difficult to locate and repair those cuts when they happen (especially rat chews or horizontal boring damage) so it's a bit of a wash really.

          • You're correct. I work in this industry.
            UG fiber is several times more expensive per mile than Aerial fiber. It's somewhat less vulnerable to cuts, but much more difficult to locate and repair those cuts when they happen (especially rat chews or horizontal boring damage) so it's a bit of a wash really.

            Plus I'm sure Google wants people to SEE the wiring go up. I wonder if the people doing the work are wearing a "Google" branded jacket or helmet.

            • From what I understand it'll be Google employees doing the hanging, so yeah, they probably will have Google branded jackets and trucks.

            • Re: (Score:3)

              by Shatrat ( 855151 )

              If I had to guess they're contractors and are wearing hi-viz yellow and orange, and the fiber is going to be plain black All Dielectric Self Supporting fiber going up on poles that probably already have other companies fiber, as well as copper, and cable TV facilities hanging on them. Most people drive past thousands of miles of fiber every day (if you go by individual strand) and don't notice it. If you see a black cable going into a large black canister, that's a splice case. If you see a cable doubled

          • What does "horizontal boring damage" mean? People drilling though the air? Animals that burrow though plastic and copper (but only horizontally)?

          • Unlike power or copper telephone, it seems like it should be relatively affordable to lay fiber in a mesh so there are redundant routes to neighborhood-level routers so service can continue, albeit at reduced capacity, if some routes go down. Does anybody do that?

      • Re:I can't wait (Score:4, Informative)

        by Rasperin ( 1034758 ) on Monday February 06, 2012 @02:22PM (#38945045)
        As a Shawnee, KS (just about 5minutes from North Kansas City, KS) resident I can only think of one tornado that has come close to this area in the last 12 years (I think there might have been one in 1999) and the amount of damage it did was rip a few roof tiles off a house. Tornados do a pretty good job of staying out of this area, however that doesn't mean we don't get 70-100mph winds every so often that knock down said poles. Honestly, those days seem to do more damage in this area than tornados do.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by aaronjp ( 51549 )
          Ice storms do more damage here than Tornados ever have.

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by Nehmo ( 757404 )

            Ice storms do more damage here than Tornados ever have.

            And the municipal governments do more than both. (KCK resident speaking.) As this project is behind schedule in terms of Google's early announcements, I assumed Google somwhow clashed with the crooks and was contemplating abandoning the project. Now, I see the project is underway. Google must have caved and paid the necessary bribes.
            Oh, the tornados? They are not a significant threat. The Kansas City (the metro straddles the Kansas-Missouri state line) metro is in a 5 tornadoes per 100,000 mile^2 (260,000

            • I've lived through two tornadoes, one on the outskirts of Wyndotte when I was 14 at a family meetup. We were really lucky my uncle (at his house) had a cemented basement, the tornado barreled right through his house with two half houses on each side. And one when I was 4 that blew out the windows in my pre-school. So they do happen but the ice storms, wind storms(70-100mph), cold snaps(-20f), and heat waves (110f+) are going to be far more destructive. I have to admit I know very little about the KCK counci
      • Fiber is remarkably durable. Last Spring we had bad storm roll through that took down 8 utility poles along the road right in front of work. The power was out, cable TV lines snapped, phone lines had to be restrung, but the fiber on those poles never broke. Once power was restored our Internet connection was back up. The hospital about 5 miles down the road is also serviced by that fiber trunk and never lost service. The ISP, who had not gotten any reports yet from the utility companies, had no idea th

  • I can wait (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    As a Kansas City, MO non-resident it is not exciting to see this happening there.

  • Still a bit confused... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Darkness404 ( 1287218 ) on Monday February 06, 2012 @01:11PM (#38944127)
    Really though, I'm still a bit confused with how Kansas City managed to get Google's fiber optic cables when really it was Topeka that should have been chosen...

    Either way, a good development that should help the KC area get more technology companies and make it a bit more livable.

    • Really though, I'm still a bit confused with how Kansas City managed to get Google's fiber optic cables when really it was Topeka that should have been chosen...

      And your reason(s) for Topeka would be...

      Or why don't you just tell us why you're a bit confused?

    • Why Topeka? From Google's official FAQ:

      Why did Google choose Kansas City, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri?
      Nearly 1,100 communities across the country expressed interest in this project. Our goal was to find a location where we could build efficiently, make an impact on the community, and develop working partnerships with the local government, utility and community organizations. We believe we’ve found this in both Kansas City, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri.

      http://www.google.com/fiber/kansascity/f [google.com]

      • Re:Still a bit confused... (Score:5, Informative)

        by Hadlock ( 143607 ) on Monday February 06, 2012 @02:14PM (#38944941) Homepage Journal

        Not mentioned: Kansas City is a combined city-county government. That roughly halves the amount of city level and county level paperwork, only one board to brib^H^H^H^H inform, one set of telecommunication laws to study etc etc. Many other medium-sized cities have distinct city and county level governments (in addition to State government).
         
        TL;DR Kansas City has one fewer governing body & sets of laws/jurisdiction (2 vs 3) than most cities it's size do.

        • Nevermind if you are going to choose Kansas, this is the best area to choose with the highest level of income and (iirc) the biggest area of people (well assuming the expand to Johnson County which is the burbs of KC).

    • Really though, I'm still a bit confused

      Hey baby, I hear the blues a-callin',
      Tossed salad and scrambled eggs

      Oh My
      Mercy

      And maybe I seem a bit confused,
      Yeah maybe, but I got you pegged!
      Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha!

      But I don't know what to do with those tossed salads and scrambled eggs.
      They're callin' again.

    • Fiber is made from glass.. Glass comes from sand, that is millions of year old crushed rock and shells, being heated at high temps. Since Topeka refuses to acknowledge that the earth is any more than 6000 years old, obviously, the people there don't believe glass can exist. You can't install something that can't exist, and google was chased out as a blasphemer..

      • Fiber is made from glass.. Glass comes from sand, that is millions of year old crushed rock and shells, being heated at high temps. Since Topeka refuses to acknowledge that the earth is any more than 6000 years old, obviously, the people there don't believe glass can exist. You can't install something that can't exist, and google was chased out as a blasphemer..

        You missed a serious step in your logic. if all Topekans really believe the Earth to be 6000 years old, then they believe the sand was created 6000 years ago in its current form, and its resemblance to millions of years old crushed rock to be a coincidence (or design). Your belief that sand is millions of years old has no bearing in their beliefs.

      • Well fiber was made out of glass about 6000 years ago maybe, nowadays we use plastic, it's much clearer than glass.

  • I guess it is for KC folks, but I've had fiber to my house for years here in Texas from Verizon. Seriously, they are really only setting up the backbone network at this point, so there is a LONG way to go before they will be ready to cable up their first house. Call me when they sign up their first customer....

    • Gigabit fiber from Verizon? No, I didn't think so.

      FWIW, I have Verizon FiOS here, and it's nicer than anything else in the area, but it doesn't hold a candle to what a real high speed connection could look like from Google. Especially since Google owns so much of it's own long-distance backbone, I'm betting their local fiber is going to be wired up pretty well to the rest of the internet tubes.

      • Verizon could offer Gigabit if they wanted/had too. Once you have fiber to the house, you can offer what ever speed you decided to offer. I believe that verizon tops out at 150 Megabit, but there is nothing preventing them offering more. At some point they'd have to roll out new ONT's (mine's basically limited to 100Base-T but I'm sure the equipment exists.

        I still don't think this is all that newsworthy, at least until they hook up their first subscriber in a few months. Then, I want to know when they s

        • The new GPON ONTs Verizon is using for 150/35Mbit service have Gig-E ports on them.

        • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

          by thogard ( 43403 )

          "Once you have fiber to the house, you can offer what ever speed you decided to offer."
          Why do people keep repeating this lie? PON has been in use for about 2 decades and in that time has speed up 40x from the first production stuff to the fastest in a lab. Point to point fiber has increased 20,000x times in 4 decades based on the fastest gear I can buy over the counter in town today.

          Most FTTH is some sort of passive optical which is shared with somewhere up to 4096 other customers and one strand. This is

          • So are you saying Google is intending to use at least two fibers to the customer to get around this issue? Somehow I don't think they will.

            My point here is that Google is not making any huge leap in technology. Hanging fiber on poles is great and Google apparently has enough money to do it, but the *real* question is not about the technology being deployed. The real question is: Can Google make it pay? If Google doesn't make money on this, it won't matter.

            The technology to use the fiber to my house will

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by thogard ( 43403 )

              I have no idea what they are doing but I would like to know. I do know that the single fiber GPON that is being deployed here is just as future proof as the stuff I was putting the in ground in the mid 80s and splicing with xacto knives in the early 90s... as in its going to be ignored.

              I can't imagine that Google would try anything other that dual fibers to a switch and then run it from there. There are gigabit switches you can get that can hang from a cable.

    • I guess it is for KC folks, but I've had fiber to my house for years here in Texas from Verizon.

      Um, no? This is ten times faster then verizon's fastest offering* which isn't even available everywhere, so yes, it is news.

      *Yes I know 1 Gigabit isn't 10x greater then 150 megabit.

      • Hmmm.... Still, my 25 MegaBit doesn't approach the bandwidth available on the fiber to my house (which carried the phone line, their full set of cable channels as well as their on-demmand streaming as well). My pipe from the ONT to Verizon is limited to the fiber capacity, which is the same as what Google is doing. That Verizon throttles me to 25 Megabit is simply an imposed limit, not a real one.

        So let me know when they sign up their first customer and how much they pay. Maybe I can use the competition

  • AT&T has only rolled out LTE in a few select cities. One of which is Kansas City. Now they're getting fiber too?

    I lived there in high school, during which time I had not so much as a pager, and considered myself lucky to have AOL on dialup.

    I'd like to take this opportunity to tell all the kids in KC that I hate them.
  • They are hanging the fibre in the air? How quaint.

  • OK, now they're doing it right. (Score:3)

    by Animats ( 122034 ) on Monday February 06, 2012 @02:01PM (#38944715) Homepage

    OK, now they're hanging cable in the telecommunications area of the pole, where it's supposed to go. Putting it up with the power lines was a stupid idea to begin with. You don't work up there unless you have to, and then you have to turn off the power or use long "hot sticks".

    • You don't work up there unless you have to, and then you have to turn off the power or use long "hot sticks".

      Kinda like fucking a whore in the front hole.

    • I believe they were going to do it that way all along. As I understand, Google was trying to get out of paying the owner of the pole for use of the space. Unless Google is going to come out and replace the pole when someone hits it with their car, they should be required to pay for the space.

  • It is good to see Google willing to do what no other traditional telecommunications company is willing to do. 1GB FTTH is available in Japan and there is talk about it happening in the UK. It is a shame to see Verizon, AT&T, CenturyLink, and Sprint still trying to squeeze money out of antiquated technologies. Another competitor to the entrenched Big Telecom companies was sorely needed. This will force the legacy carriers to up their ante or try to fight a losing game in the court systems to block Go
  • I wonder how long it will take incumbent telcoms to sabotage their infrastructure, like happend(s) here between time-warner & verizon.

  • I'll add my obligatory post to say that I don't live in the US, so I'm now into my 11th year of having fiber.

    But, I understand that you don't have the money, since you need to buy tanks and guns and shit to kill people while invading far off countries that don't threaten you in the least, not to mention all of the Homeland Gestapo people and crap you have to pay for.

  • Restrictions? (Score:3)

    by nilbog ( 732352 ) on Monday February 06, 2012 @05:59PM (#38947409) Homepage Journal

    I'm interested in what Google will allow on their network. As I understand it, they want to see what creative things people will do with gigabit connections in their homes. Does that mean Google will allow people to run their own webservers, etc? I'm also interested in learning some of the things that Google *thinks* people might do with such speedy connections.

    My state has a fiber optic network but most cities have banned it because Comcast successfully lobbied against it as "unfair competition." I guess it takes someone as big as Google to overcome that sort of thing.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by thogard ( 43403 )

      I want to put part of a RAID array on the other side of town.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Well, you have the Redundant part of RAID down, anyway...

  • We've known since the early 1900's that everything's up to date in Kansas City [youtube.com]. They've gone about as far as they can go.

  • I will make sure to login to Slashdot and let you know exactly how fast my new internet connection is. I may gloat about it a little, but you'll survive.

  • I get that it's cheap to put on poles, but will it still be cheap after a couple of storms? I can't say that I've seen many poles inside a city in Sweden for, well, ever? Even in the country side there are barely any wires on poles left, even much of the electricity wires are dug down.

  • The potential here for increased competition against the telephone and cable companies can only be a good thing.

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