Whatever happened to Google Fiber for Communities? | Hacker News Reader

Whatever happened to Google Fiber for Communities?

google.com

54 pointsmatthewboh30 comments

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?

Open articleView on HN

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.

lol

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

Stanford faculty is getting it

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.

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.

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.

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?

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

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.

Come on North Dakota!

Hah!

Is verizon fios not fiber to the home?

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

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.

That would make sense; it probably costs less to extend service around an existing hub than to start from scratch.

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?

Yay! Green Bay, WI is on the list.

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.

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

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

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.

Im less concerned about metered BW than I am every single farking packet I create passing through the hands of a deeply technically capable company that is google.

Will digital freedom exist in the future? in 20 years, will the thought police/BB be monitoring every action, input and response? [Edit: More-so than now, with Eschelon?]

Sure, the google "Free Candy" van looks really enticing now - but what about once I get in and am too far into the trip to say no?

I think Google fiber can answer the question of how elastic bandwidth demand is. If you give someone effectively unlimited bandwidth, how much will they actually use?

They? I think the better question is what kind of applications are enabled and what that revenue model looks like. How does that revenue stream get allocated between network and app provider?

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

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.

Yes, but all it means is part of SF is getting fiber. Could this just be a new line for added redundancy for their Stanford "beta" project?

I'm not sure what list of cities other people are referring to...in the PDFs? Or the fiberforcommunities.com list of cities that responded to the RFI?

Google has a list of the cities that appied for and (may?) receive the FIOS offering. Its in the original story link.

Reassuring to know a list of chosen cities hasn't been leaked.

GOOG isn't offering FiOS. That's a Verizon thing. A passive optical network with asymmetric bandwidth thing.

What GOOG is doing is a single fiber per house going all the way back to a CO.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com