Maybe I was in denial that Google would behave differently about this product considering their track record.
I'm smack in the middle of debating Google Fi, this probably won't impact my decision, but I wonder if it will suffer a similar fate.
One of the major pluses of GFiber is it largely ignored DMCA requests. Also, the 20 Gbps ONT beta service was rad. A weak point was their mesh routers that didn't work quite right and would refuse to work if "too close together".. 20 ft apart. Their customer service/tech support was pretty awesome.
I'll be sure to take this as a warning sign in the future with other services if aggressive upselling starts happening unexpectedly.
I checked recent comps and see 6-10x EV/EBITDA multiples. Allegedly Google had been funding with cash and losing money. Go figure...
Every $1 they got out of you with upsell, gave them $10 more for AI.
But more than most Google projects, it's always been clear that they could at any time get bored with it and give up.
I’ll actually be optimistic and say we will make it a year before the price hikes start
It sounds like Google Fiber’s underlying mission was successful: to improve the quality of Internet experience nationwide. They didn’t even have to undertake the difficulty and expense of an actual buildout in most cases!
It's because lobbyists have prevented your local community from implementing anything close to what Chattanooga/EPB [0] has done with their city-owned fiber infrastructure. They literally cannot expand outside their power delivery area (by court order), and were only initially allowed to offer internet services because "it helped monitor their smartgrid technologies for power delivery." National ISPs have spent millions campaigning against EPB-like ISP expansion.
It's a racket.
[0] Electric Power Board ISP, is incredible: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPB> 300mbps synchronous fiber, $58.99/month (1gbps is ~$75; 20gps is $250), four-port fiber/copper bridge (supplied) direct to your techshed. EVERY service address gets one power-drop and one 4-fiber service drop, whether or not you use internet(s).
I don't even know why other national ISPs advertise here — they specifically lock certain apartment complexes into EPB-exclusion contracts... and don't tell potential renters this during leasing/contracts. It's shitty.
It's a racket.
Sonic keeps promising they will be lighting up dark fiber in our part of the city but it keeps not happening. They’ll happily resell us the same AT&T service we’re already paying for, though.
