Google Fiber Is Coming to San Antonio

https://fiber.google.com/cities/sanantonio/

by JaakkoP • 11 years ago

110 56 11 years ago

fiber.google.com

therobot244• 11 years ago

I'm curious if you look at the list of Google Fiber cities and their population density (http://i.imgur.com/8mpVm73.jpg) you'll see a trend, and maybe predict the next set of potential cities. I mean it makes sense that they wouldn't roll out in NYC/LA/Chicago immediately, however, there is most likely some ratio of density to total population that they may be aiming for. I dunno, just a thought.

raldi• 11 years ago

No, I think it's just that some cities have insane bureaucracies that make it a nightmare to get anything done, and others don't.

See, for example, AT&T's eleven-years-and-counting ordeal to roll out U-Verse across San Francisco.

therobot244• 11 years ago

You're definitely right that many cities are crossed off due to bureaucracy, though I'm specifically curious at how Google is picking cities to look into in the first place. That's where I think density/population come into play.

jseliger• 11 years ago

No, I think it's just that some cities have insane bureaucracies that make it a nightmare to get anything done, and others don't.

That's true of New York, but I'll also note that NYC has reasonably good Internet speeds in much of the city right now. For example, RCN sells 330 Mbs / down and ~25 Mbs /up for $~60/month right now: http://rcn.com/330. Verizon FiOS is more expensive and probably worse (unless you need high upload speeds for some reason), but it is widely available.

Google Fiber is probably not targeting places that are "pretty good, but could be better;" they're probably targeting places that are a combination of "really bad," along with reasonable regulatory climates.

rblatz• 11 years ago

I'm betting Phoenix is the next announcement. Tempe just passed some Google Fiber related stuff last week Scottsdale is set to do the same later this month. I haven't check the upcoming meeting agenda's for Phoenix itself, but I'd assume it's also set to do something similar if it hasn't already.

angrybits• 11 years ago

This is a good thing even for those outside of San Antonio proper. I was able to upgrade to 1 Gbps on a small-time ISP this weekend, and it's because Google is coming to the large city near me. Competition is a wonderful thing.

JaakkoP2• 11 years ago

Yeah I bet that the incumbents are immediately going to offer better rates to lock in the customers most likely to change providers.

saryant3• 11 years ago

Some parts of San Antonio have had a choice of cable providers for some time now, TWC and the local competitor Grande. If you lived in those areas, service was actually pretty good. I I think I paid $35/month for 50mbps service from Grande when I lived in Olmos Park.

josephjrobison2• 11 years ago

In Austin - offered 50mb from Time Warner for $35/mo - then automatically upgraded to 200mb. The fiberhood is coming in a month so yes they're getting generous.

JaakkoP2• 11 years ago

Here's also their blog post about the announcement. http://googlefiberblog.blogspot.com/2015/08/san-antonio-fibe...

hipsterrific• 11 years ago

I will disregard said posts until Google Fiber announces they're coming to Minnesota.

On that note, can Google Fiber come to Minnesota? :(

destitude• 11 years ago

Many places in Minnesota already offer gigabit fiber. What is strange is it is in many of the rural areas (see most of Northern Minnesota).. See Paul Bunyan Communications for instance.

toomuchtodo• 11 years ago

What is strange is it is in many of the rural areas (see most of Northern Minnesota).. See Paul Bunyan Communications for instance.

Municipal fiber doesn't need to be profitable.

seanf• 11 years ago

My former employer has an expanding fiber network in Minneapolis: http://fiber.usinternet.com/

sandworm1012• 11 years ago

All welland good, but will this come in time to swing Texas in the next election?

saryant3• 11 years ago

Considering how hilariously, astoundingly bad the last Democrat did in a Texas gubernatorial election (and the fact that fiber != swings in political sentiment), I'm going to chalk this up to a pipe dream.

pnut• 11 years ago

Well to be fair, her only claim to fame was a single filibuster.

And even when the voting rolls turn purple/blue in Texas, that's just a green flag for the entrenched Republican elements in TX to break out their book of dirty tricks to stall the inevitable. They're not going to cede power without a ruthless, billion dollar oil money fight.

refurb• 11 years ago

I would argue the reason it's coming is the low regulatory burden in Texas. Why would it seing it the other way?

sandworm1012• 11 years ago

I think it is far more complicated than that. Google cares about the ease of deploying fiber. That touches on who owned the poles, the layout of land ownership and a hundred other things not necessarily tied to regulatory burdens.

There are times when too little regulation can frustrate such deployments. For instance, if all the poles are owned by traditional ISPs and there is no regulation mandating they grant access, Google is locked out. Ditto for apartment buildings without any law mandating they allow new ISPs to string wired inside "their" walls. Ease of doing or setting up a business is not always proportional to the number of laws on the books. If it were, there would be no need for antitrust rules.

(My original comment was a take on the assumption that there is a tide of hipsters chasing Google fibre around the country.)

caseysoftware• 11 years ago

Still waiting for it to "come" to Austin.

But on the plus side, TWC, ATT, and Grande (my favorite) all upgraded their networks in Austin in the year+ after Google's announcement. Even though coverage still isn't complete, we have all of them fighting it out.

simplyluke• 11 years ago

Seriously.

Have any cities without large pre-existing fiber networks actually seen widespread google fiber adoption?

I was singing its praises multiple years ago when Austin was announced, but excluding a couple of small neighborhoods in south-central Austin, the city has seen relatively little in the way of google fiber. AT&T, and Grande have actually been expanding much faster from what I can see.

Major business areas still haven't seen Gbps speeds.

nulltype2• 11 years ago

It sure would be clever if Google realized they don't have to build out the fiber, just threaten to.

rayiner2• 11 years ago

It's not a coincidence. Cities like Austin had existing fiber because they had more relaxed regulatory regimes that made it attractive for smaller companies to put in fiber. Google demands such regulatory loosening as part of the bargain for getting fiber, so it's unsurprising that cities like that were the first targets of Google Fiber.

Meanwhile, there are places like Baltimore that turned down fiber because they wouldn't agree to regulatory concessions less demanding than what Google requires. Google Fiber is never coming here.

jrockway2• 11 years ago

Have any cities without large pre-existing fiber networks actually seen widespread google fiber adoption?

Kansas City?

EarthLaunch• 11 years ago

Austin has had residential AT&T gigabit fiber in some areas for more than a year.

Texasian• 11 years ago

It's worth noting that San Antonio has had a fiber network in the ground for years that it's municipally owned utility company put in.

The only reason it isn't open is because the state government passed a law forbidding municipal ISPs.

Obi_Juan_Kenobi• 11 years ago

Is that being fought in light of the FCC ruling on municipal broadband?

devinus• 11 years ago

This would be exciting if it was even rolled out in Austin yet.

NoMoreNicksLeft• 11 years ago

Goddammit, bring it to Lubbock. I beg you, Divine Google, show mercy on me.

sillygeese• 11 years ago

Great news! Now San Antonians can have everything they do online data-mined by Google!

I'm being snarky, but does anyone doubt Google will snoop the shit out of you once you're on a connection of theirs? That's the main reason they got into the ISP business.

It's not like they started snooping only recently either. Remember when their Street View cars just "accidentally" happened to capture nearby WiFi traffic?

nulltype2• 11 years ago

Yeah I totally trust Comcast to not do that too.

nadams• 11 years ago

Sandvine anyone? When they said they weren't using it. Then we proved they were and still denied it. Then I believe they were fined by the FCC and I think to this day they still deny using it...

fideloper• 11 years ago

Exciting news for me here in SA. Just moved here from CT ~9 months ago!

I'd rather pay evil Google over evil Time Warner.

new2• 11 years ago

Can someone explain what it takes for Google Fiber to come to a city ?

Do they buy an existing fiber company in the city ? Do they buy dark fiber ? Do they lay new fiber ?

I'm trying to understand how the process works.

Side note : Is anyone laying new fiber anymore ? I was reading this ( http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/01/verizon-nears-the-en... )

nostrademons• 11 years ago

They use existing Google fiber links for the backbone, but they need to lay new fiber for the last mile. Getting the right-of-ways to do this accounts for virtually all of the delay in expanding to a new city; oftentimes the utility poles are owned by competitors, and trying to lay anything underground or put up new poles requires a maze of permitting from city & county governments and utility commissions.

freehunter2• 11 years ago

The answer is all of those things. Google has bought existing fiber (such as in Utah)[1] and laid new fiber such as in Kansas City [2].

[1] http://www.fiercetelecom.com/story/google-closes-deal-acquir...

[2] http://www.technologybloggers.org/technology/google-fiber-st...

platinum1• 11 years ago

The actual new/old fiber itself isn't really what makes it possible to get Google Fiber, it's more about having a regulatory framework that allows Fiber to be cost effective.

From: http://www.broadbandforamerica.com/blog/regulatory-concessio...

"Municipalities across the U.S., nearly 1,100 of them, competed vigorously to be chosen as the site for the project, but too few had a regulatory environment conducive to the investment that was required."

I believe Salt Lake City sold their unused fiber infrastructure to Google for $1, which I'm sure helped (in return Google ).

Animats• 11 years ago

Google Fiber is mostly vaporware. Google has been announcing "coming to" for various cities for five years now. Actual installation is about half of Provo, Utah, one side of Kansas City, and part of Austin, TX. That's all.

It seems to be more of a PR stunt than an actual business.

brianpan• 11 years ago

The business serving ads. The business importance is improving access that users have and reducing costs of delivering bytes. Making money being in the business of being an ISP is probably not a business goal. If data rates magically improve when Google makes these announcements, that's has a positive impact (more than just gaining a little PR).

agumonkey• 11 years ago

Funny even though it seems a steady growing project, it's now a lot more frustrating since it appear potentially mainstream rather than a one shot experiment.

msh• 11 years ago

Just curious, what are people doing with the connections (if they are really using the gigabit connection)?

Its not to discount the value of gigabit internet, but I curretly have 100/100 megabit and cant imagine what I would use faster speed to do. Most stuff dont max out my current connection event with multiple users.

travelton• 11 years ago

I'm just hoping for a low latency, stable connection. I feel Google's networking infrastructure is likely a notch above the rest.

roflchoppa• 11 years ago

Lemme just say as someone who lives in the Bay Area, often referred to as one of the Tech Capitals of the US. We have crappy internet providers here.

and by crappy i mean Comcast / AT&T.

Oh the irony of living here and getting screwed over on ISPs.

Google Fiber Is Coming to San Antonio

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