[Sad Violins] FTTH is hard, Google backing off

ED E

The Alphabet division that operates Google Fiber is laying off or reassigning about nine percent of its staff as well as "pausing" or ending fiber operations in 10 cities where it hadn't yet fully committed to building. In an 11th city, San Francisco, the ISP has pulled back from a fiber deployment that was previously described as definite, but San Francisco will get a wireless service instead.

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/10/google-fiber-laying-off-9-of-staff-will-pause-plans-for-10-cities/

http://www.theverge.com/2016/10/25/13411912/alphabets-access-will-lay-off-employees-as-it-moves-away-from-fiber

https://googlefiberblog.blogspot.ie/2016/10/advancing-our-amazing-bet.html

Sad to see. Demonstrates the clear reality of it though and why a rural deployment needs heavy state funding to ever happen.

damienirel

Nothing new here, google have started projects like this with lots of "hope" from the public and they generally don't pursue it. They use it for investment to make them look like a wide band tech company when they really are only a search/advertising tech company - remember google glass??
Loads of competition already in the US when it comes to fibre. It's not their specialty so why would they get involved? It's just another distraction that gets lots of media attention, they are the masters of it! Helps keep the share prices up. Wonder what they will announce next?

ED E

damienirel wrote: »

Loads of competition already in the US

damienirel

Yeah so few companies...google are onto something new and wonderful.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiber_to_the_premises_in_the_United_States

Zillah

damienirel wrote: »

remember google glass?

Didn't they find that people didn't like wearing it in public and were uncomfortable having to talk to their technology to make it do anything? They tested it pretty extensively and it just turns out it wasn't very desirable. It would be pretty ludicrous to roll out a mass release in that context, but it was a nifty idea worth exploring.

damienirel

Zillah wrote: »

Didn't they find that people didn't like wearing it in public and were uncomfortable having to talk to their technology to make it do anything? They tested it pretty extensively and it just turns out it wasn't very desirable. It would be pretty ludicrous to roll out a mass release in that context, but it was a nifty idea worth exploring.

"a nifty idea worth exploring" - yeah in your opinion not in googles.

JohnC.

damienirel wrote: »

Yeah so few companies...google are onto something new and wonderful.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiber_to_the_premises_in_the_United_States

There may be many companies, but that doesn't mean there is competition in any given area. I have heard, and backed up by a couple of people I know living in the US, that competition available to customers is very bad. You may get to choose between two providers where you live, sometimes only one option. And that's not even for fibre.

Gonzo

United States is crap for broadband. A bit like here there are select areas that have everything you can think of but many areas have 1 provider for fast broadband or nothing at all. Many rural parts are still on 28k/56k dial up. My relations can see the Hollywood sign from their back garden and only have classic ADSL.

ED E

damienirel wrote: »

Yeah so few companies...google are onto something new and wonderful.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiber_to_the_premises_in_the_United_States

You don't quite understand how it actually is on the ground.

Comcast and Time Warner Cable did not directly compete for customers; there was no physical overlap in the respective service areas where they offer services.

Thats like Dublin being 100% Virgin. Wicklow 100% SIRO. Wexford 100% Eir.

Most of the FTTH footprint in the states is in response to Municipal/Small private programs and Google Fibre. Same way competition scared Eir. Take away google, everyones rollout grinds to a halt.

MrDiyFan

Gonzo wrote: »

My relations can see the Hollywood sign from their back garden and only have classic ADSL.

Surely there is decent wireless available

damienirel

"You don't quite understand how it actually is on the ground."

So your so much smarter than me and you know exactly how it is on the ground - good man!

damienirel

Gonzo wrote: »

United States is crap for broadband. A bit like here there are select areas that have everything you can think of but many areas have 1 provider for fast broadband or nothing at all. Many rural parts are still on 28k/56k dial up. My relations can see the Hollywood sign from their back garden and only have classic ADSL.

You're talking about speeds and service when I'm listing all the companies in the business of providing ftth - 2 very separate things. It's still in it's infancy - so google got involved. How many companies can they have rolling out fibre and still make money? You have to remember that it's early days everywhere for fibre. To rule it out as needing state intervention is naive. It probably just needs less competition.

damienirel

"Same way competition scared Eir. Take away google, everyones rollout grinds to a halt." - also investors lack imagination they look to Google as pioneers and once they pull out of fibre then investors in all the other companies in the business get cold feet, it has a ripple effect in the US. Not sure it's as bad here for that also we have state intervention in the form of NBP.

Zillah

damienirel wrote: »

"a nifty idea worth exploring" - yeah in your opinion not in googles.

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you think I meant "move into full production" when I said "explore". What I meant was that it was worth going as far as they did: producing a device, trying it out, seeing what developers thought; y'know, exploring the idea.

Also, is there a reason you're being so snarky? Like, go to bed or eat something. Just read over your last posts and ponder why you're acting like internet people kicked your dog or something.

Cuddlesworth

ED E wrote: »

You don't quite understand how it actually is on the ground.

I know somebody involved in one of the US roll-outs. Every poll, every trench, every meter of fibre laid is a fight due to the way local governments have been implementing laws. They are purely in favour of the incumbents, while most infrastructure was paid for by the government. And the way their "suburbs" work, isolated islands of self governance and exclusivity contracts. Considering that Google select picked the city's with the least amount of roadblocks, I would shudder to think of the costs involved with some of the city's they passed on.

plodder

ED E wrote: »

Sad to see. Demonstrates the clear reality of it though and why a rural deployment needs heavy state funding to ever happen.

I agree it's sad, but these problems seem to be in urban areas, and I wouldn't say that "rural" in the US is any way comparable to rural in Ireland. It looks like some rural deployment here doesn't need state funding.

damienirel

plodder wrote: »

I agree it's sad, but these problems seem to be in urban areas, and I wouldn't say that "rural" in the US is any way comparable to rural in Ireland. It looks like some rural deployment here doesn't need state funding.

Very true. They have a lot of "off grid" there never mind offline.

damienirel

Zillah wrote: »

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you think I meant "move into full production" when I said "explore". What I meant was that it was worth going as far as they did: producing a device, trying it out, seeing what developers thought; y'know, exploring the idea.

Also, is there a reason you're being so snarky? Like, go to bed or eat something. Just read over your last posts and ponder why you're acting like internet people kicked your dog or something.

Jeez! - Somebody is hyper sensitive?
Just because I don't agree with you and others doesn't have to mean I'm snarky.

murphaph

damienirel wrote: »

"a nifty idea worth exploring" - yeah in your opinion not in googles.

No, in Google's opinion too, seeing as they actually explored it!

murphaph

plodder wrote: »

I agree it's sad, but these problems seem to be in urban areas, and I wouldn't say that "rural" in the US is any way comparable to rural in Ireland. It looks like some rural deployment here doesn't need state funding.

Make no mistake. Eir would not be rolling out ftth on a commercial basis if the NBP wasn't waiting in the wings.

damienirel

murphaph wrote: »

No, in Google's opinion too, seeing as they actually explored it!

yeah they explored it to the point of never going ahead with it, much like their fibre, same point I made earlier.

damienirel

murphaph wrote: »

Make no mistake. Eir would not be rolling out ftth on a commercial basis if the NBP wasn't waiting in the wings.

Make no mistake Eir wouldn't exist if it wasn't for state intervention over the years.

murphaph

damienirel wrote: »

Make no mistake Eir wouldn't exist if it wasn't for state intervention over the years.

Well of course it wouldn't as it was originally part of the P&T.

damienirel

murphaph wrote: »

Well of course it wouldn't as it was originally part of the P&T.

Good we agree on something