A decade ago, Google had big plans to shake up the US broadband market, investing in a massive fiber network that could challenge incumbents like Comcast and AT&T. Those plans were tripped up in 2016 when the CEO left and the division laid off half of its staff.
Now, with a new CEO, Google Fiber seems ready to hit the gas again, announces plans expanding to five new states in the next few years.
That should be good news for broadband customers in these states, who hardly have any competition for established cable-operated networks with a de facto monopoly. But I’m skeptical about Google Fiber’s ability to deliver, based on my personal experience.
Last year, I moved to Atlanta, one of the first cities in the Google Fiber network and still a showcase for the service. In the Midtown apartment where I live for a few months, I have Google Fiber service. It’s fast, reliable, and inexpensive.
Then I moved to the building next door, exactly 80 feet away. A fiber optic line runs right through the front door of the building, but when I enter my new address into the Google Fiber website, it tells me fiber service is unavailable.
Unfortunately, Google Fiber is not available at your address, even though all your neighbors are connected.
So what’s the problem? My previous apartment was built 4 years ago, which meant that the developer was able to harness the fiber network and run it through the entire building as part of the initial construction. For renters, connecting to fiber is really as easy as plugging a Google Wi-Fi router into an existing wired Ethernet port and signing in with a Google account.
However, the apartment I moved into was built in 2001, when Google was still an upstart search company, a few years before its IPO and over a decade before it did anything full. as ambitious as Google Fiber. (Strangely, when I entered the address of the building across the street, built a few years later than us but still a few years before Google Fiber launched, the response from the web form was a little different: “Google Fiber is coming to Atlanta. “Uh, really?)
In those days, broadband came through a DSL or cable connection. Both telephone and cable television networks have existed long enough for their infrastructure to be ubiquitous in modern American housing. So yeah, my building (which isn’t really old, but could also be a cave house if broadband is involved) has both coax and phone jacks in every room .
That coax cable provides Internet connectivity through Xfinity (nee Comcast). Because Google Fiber is such a big presence in the region, Xfinity’s terms and pricing are extremely competitive. Indeed, I had reliable service over my cable modem, with 1200 Mbps download speeds on par with the performance of the Google Fiber network. Unfortunately, upload speeds are only a fraction of what they are on the Google Fiber network, which means operations like backing up to the cloud take about 20 times longer than on cable networks. Optical offers symmetric download and upload speeds. Oh, and did I mention that Xfinity has a monthly data cap, while Google Fiber doesn’t?
Last April, when I asked a Google Fiber spokesperson about how to connect our building, they advised me to contact our property manager or HOA and ask them to fill out an online form. online:
We’re definitely working to connect more buildings in Atlanta (and all of our Google Fiber areas!) with fast, reliable Internet. Property managers interested in connecting their buildings can fill out the form at google.com/fiber/properties. That creates a ticket for us here at Google Fiber, alerting us to the building’s interest in our service. They should expect a response from one of our multi-tenant team members within a few weeks, they will assess if Google Fiber is available in the area and if the building is buildable. or not. If so, they will discuss next steps to wire the building to connect residents to the Google Fiber service.
You should get a response “within weeks,” they say. That sounds great, but when our property manager filled out that form, they received no response and repeated follow-ups through the same form were met with great silence. opposite to. (I asked a Google Fiber spokesperson if there is a way to report these requests or if there are issues with the processing of content submitted using this form. I will update this post if I receive it. responded.)
I shouldn’t be surprised. One reason cable companies have such persistent monopolies is that expanding service requires large investments in labor and physical infrastructure. Retrofitting old buildings is one of the most capital intensive activities.
If we have a family home, connecting fiber optic cables may not be so difficult. But connecting inside a multi-family apartment is much more complicated. It requires the consent of the owner of an apartment building or the management of an apartment complex, followed by an inspection and then some construction.
To handle the logistics of providing service to multiple households in a building, you need a Network Demarcation Point (NDP) outside the building and then a fiber optic distribution center inside the building, with fiber optic distribution terminals and conduits throughout the building. For details on exactly what is involved, see Google Fiber Building Stages and Construction principles documents.
But that’s completely impossible if the good people at Google Fiber don’t respond to inquiries from potential customers. Anyway, for now, it seems like everyone in my building is stuck on a high-cable, no-fiber diet.
