Whatever happened to Google Fiber for Communities?

http://www.google.com/appserve/fiberrfi/

by matthewboh • 16 years ago

54 30 16 years ago

Last I heard was that they were going to make an announcement this year. Well, time is running short and I can't even find a "We'll be announcing Q1, 2011". Anyone know what happened to it?

shotgun3• 16 years ago

We're all waiting for Google to make their announcement. At least everyone in Duluth is! http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/11/09/goog...

If we don't hear by the end of the year as Google promised, the pitchforks and torches will come out of storage.

toephu• 16 years ago

lol

chopsueyar• 16 years ago

Come on North Dakota!

pat2man• 16 years ago

Hah!

f1gm3nt• 16 years ago

You can already get Fiber in Chattanooga, TN =)

I was surprised that we weren't on the list. Be interesting to see what the next city to get residential fiber is.

epochwolf• 16 years ago

Yay! Green Bay, WI is on the list.

juiceandjuice• 16 years ago

http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/show_story.php?id=19013

Stanford faculty is getting it

jedc• 16 years ago

That's separate from the Google Fiber for Communities project. I haven't seen any news on that since all the applications were submitted.

I'm sure the selection / due diligence / contracting process is ridiculously complex, though! I would assume it would be a while before anything was announced.

wmf2• 16 years ago

My impression is that the Stanford project is the first (or perhaps zeroth) phase of the Google Fiber for Communities project. They can probably learn a lot rolling out "minimum viable fiber" to ~100 homes before they try to do thousands. It wouldn't seem to make sense for Google to have multiple competing fiber projects.

phlux5• 16 years ago

About two weeks ago I was walking from my house in SF and at 20th and Douglass (http://goo.gl/WD2SX) I saw 4 "HP Communications" trucks (http://www.hpcomminc.com/) installing multi-strand fiber on the telco poles.

I asked "What are you installing?"

"Fiber."

"For Google?" :)

"Yeah."

"The home project?"

"Yeah."

Check out this "Confidential" PDF: http://www.hpcomminc.com/pdf/Revised_Intro_Draft.pdf

Google Cache: http://goo.gl/FN2W4

---

So... it looks like the GFIOS project is moving forward.

JakeSc• 16 years ago

If this is indeed for Google, then congratulations San Francisco!

phlux5• 16 years ago

Yes, I couldn't tell if the guy that I asked the questions was just yes-ing me away...

Nrsolis3• 16 years ago

I'm not so sure how I feel about this.

On one hand, this is a direct shot across the bow of the cablecos/telcos. By essentially taking the roadmap of bandwidth expansion via slow, rolling upgrades over a long long period of time and going straight to the ultimate destination, GOOG is sucking a whole lot of "value" out of the existing infrastructure.

On the other hand, this will place enormous stress on the regional/long haul networks which I'll be forced to upgrade yet again. Unless they can charge more, this cant be good news for level3 or VZ or T.

I forsee an acceleration towards metered b/w in our future.

synnik• 16 years ago

I'm confused - what does a PDF showing their sales pitch have to do with the Google project?

phlux5• 16 years ago

It shows they do a very substantial amount of cable and fiber installations. That packet, being confidential, is submitted when they bid on work and attempt to get large projects.

The words of the installer were "Yeah" to my question about the install being for Google.

If this were some po-dunk little company, and they did not have such a strong sales sheet - I would be less-inclined to think that installer was telling me the truth.

The fact is that I didnt reveal all info about myself - I asked him if he was installing for the [google code name for the FIOS project] and he said yes....

so - all the information that I have, leads me to believe them - though, obviously it is circumstantial.

paul9290• 16 years ago

Is verizon fios not fiber to the home?

metageek2• 16 years ago

Yeah, and it's been so unprofitable they've stopped installing it in new towns.

Gimpson• 16 years ago

But it seems like they're continuing the build out in areas they've started. I see Verizon FIOS trucks rolling around LA almost every day.

tibbon• 16 years ago

Any idea of which part is unprofitable? Too much bandwidth used, or is it that they aren't getting enough people in each area onboard?

oogali• 16 years ago

I'm curious what name Google is operating under the California PUC (and San Francisco PUC) with.

You can't just show up with large bundles of fiber and hang 'em from the utility poles in jurisdictions that regulate pole attachments.

jsz0• 16 years ago

Google presently has some job postings for FTTH engineering and field operations positions. Looks to me like they're still in the early stages of putting this project together. I put my resume in just for the hell of it though I haven't worked with FTTH G-PON much only cable HFC & some FTTH RFoG. Worth a shot eh?

slipstream• 16 years ago

Follow-up: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/update-on-google-fibe...

Whatever happened to Google Fiber for Communities?

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