Google to build cheap FiOS for some later this year

[twocows]

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/think-big-with-gig-our-experimental.html

I, for one, am extremely excited about this, and I hope we're one community that gets selected. I'm sick of having to choose between getting screwed by ISP 1 or raped by ISP 2, and Google has enough market power to be a real competitor in this market. I'm sure Comcast/Verizon/AT&T/Time Warner/Charter are shaking in their boots; they all offer crappy service at high prices, and Google's going to be offering good service at low prices. If they do this right, they'll earn a ton of respect in my eyes.

 

[Legobricks]

they all offer crappy service at high prices, and Google's going to be offering good service at low prices.

Surely this network they intend to operate is more expensive to install and/or run and therefore cannot be offered at lower than average prices...?

We plan to offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people.

So assuming it is perfectly affordable, America's populartion is still 281,421,906.
Effectively 56,284,381 assuming an average household of 5, but it still seems not a lot of people will be able to receive Google's service. Not saying I doubt their capacity to expand, mind.

 

[Zet]

national broadband, eh? I just hope Australia and a few other countries don't get screwed over with it. We already have it bad enough as it is already :(

 

[twocows]

Surely this network they intend to operate is more expensive to install and/or run and therefore cannot be offered at lower than average prices...?



So assuming it is perfectly affordable, America's populartion is still 281,421,906.
Effectively 56,284,381 assuming an average household of 5, but it still seems not a lot of people will be able to receive Google's service. Not saying I doubt their capacity to expand, mind.

It's small initially, they're just testing reaction to it at first. Also, it doesn't have to be profitable (especially not right away); Google's business model focuses on advertising right now. They get a ton of money through advertising, and most of their other ventures are either to increase public perception of them or to gain penetration in markets that may prove profitable in the future.

 

[Midnight Beat]

Google is the Walmart of the future. Think about it, they started as a search engine and have turned into an advertising agency, an internet browser, an OS, a cell phone OS, a cell phone provider (Google voice), a cell phone manufacturer, e-mail service, and now ISP. It's incredible...

 

[Ninja Caterpie]

Google is the Coca Cola of the internet.

Total monopoly of internautical stuff.

 

[twocows]

Google is the Walmart of the future. Think about it, they started as a search engine and have turned into an advertising agency, an internet browser, an OS, a cell phone OS, a cell phone provider (Google voice), a cell phone manufacturer, e-mail service, and now ISP. It's incredible...

Google is the Coca Cola of the internet.

Total monopoly of internautical stuff.

Google its hands in a lot of things, but they're decent people. Rarely do they do something that makes me as mad as the stuff many other companies do every day.

 

[Gummy]

I swear, we're going to be seeing Google shampoo in the next five years. Not that I'm mad, Google's stuff are actually pretty nice.

 

[Midnight Beat]

Google its hands in a lot of things, but they're decent people. Rarely do they do something that makes me as mad as the stuff many other companies do every day.

I totally agree, I was just making the comparison to show that they have really expanded their product market.

 

[Hovo]

Holy crap is all I have to say. If this happens and reaches a massive scale, that would be... amazing.