Google says U.S. Internet too slow

[ColDayMan]

Google analyst: U.S. Internet needs to get faster



Mountain View, California (CNN) -- Google long has been an advocate of a single Web, one that's free of government censorship and barriers to information access. That's not the reality in today's world however.

Governments from China to France put various roadblocks in the information superhighway to serve their interests, filter speech or protect copyrights. And high-speed Internet connections haven't reached all corners of the globe -- not even all parts of the United States.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/02/08/google.policy/index.html?hpt=C1

[taestell]

And two days later, they announce their own blazingly fast Internet service...

Think big with a gig: Our experimental fiber network

And they're now going through a process to determine which city(s) should be part of the new service. If you live in Cincinnati and want to find out more about the effort to bring it here, join the Facebook group Bring Google Fiber to Cincinnati!

[Cygnus]

Google Fiber in Cincinnati would be great, but in the meantime I'll continue to enjoy Cincinnati Bell's Fiber. 

[Sherman Cahal]

Internet in this country is very slow, but we are geographically much more spread out and our services are dominated by monopolies. Instead of market forces being allowed to take effect, we are strangled by city-wide contracts with a single provider, increasing prices for consumers and businesses, and disallowing innovation in these fields.

My speed: 4282 kbps
Ohio avg: 3512 kbps
US avg: 4748 kbps
Germany: 8282 kbps
Netherlands: 11019 kbps
Sweden: 12825 kbps
Japan: 15787 kbps
S. Korea: 20429 kbps

But for all of the other countries, they are much more densely clustered. My relative's apartment structure in S. Korea has multiple antennas on top used by the mobile companies for 4G access, and every building has fiber piped in. Government mandated, market regulated. They can choose from multiple providers.

[Boreas]

AT&T and Time Warner Cable high performance internet are both available in my Ohio city.  So, there is no law establishing a monopoly. 

BTW, Cable TV/internet licensing was changed about two years ago in Ohio.

[musky]

Should this be combined into the google thread?
http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,3985.0.html

[Sherman Cahal]

AT&T delivers internet via your copper phone lines. Time Warner delivers it via your cable lines. Note you only have one cable provider, and only one phone provider. That is a monopoly. They may offer internet service, but only via two mediums, and there are only two providers for the entire city.

In Cincinnati, I have two choices. Time Warner, or Cincinnati Bell. That's it. When I was in Italy, the person I was staying with had the choice of eight Internet providers -- all high-speed. My relatives in S. Korea have the choice of ten that provide faster service at far cheaper prices -- they pay the equivalent of $10/month for 30 mbps service and HD television. You can't get that without going over $70 here in the states easy.

[Boreas]

Blame the Republican-Ohio-legislature who promised that we would have multiple choices in internet services after Ohio government took away local control of cable contracts. 

[taestell]

Google Fiber in Cincinnati would be great, but in the meantime I'll continue to enjoy Cincinnati Bell's Fiber. 

Cincinnat Bell's fiber service is good, but it's not yet available in most Cincinnati neighborhoods.  They seem to be rolling it out randomly -- It's available in parts of Downtown and OTR but not others.  It's available in Corryville but not Clifton Heights.  Yet it is available as far out as Hyde Park and Ft. Thomas, KY.

Google's service will be about 2.5x faster that Cincinnati Bell's.  Also, Google is providing the physical connection and maintaining the infrastructure, but allowing you to pick the ISP of your choice.  It's possible that Google, Cincinnati Bell, AT&T, Time Warner, AOL, and others would all be competing for your business via the Google-owned lines, theoretically driving down costs.

[doctabroccoli]

Google Fiber in Cincinnati would be great, but in the meantime I'll continue to enjoy Cincinnati Bell's Fiber. 

Cincinnat Bell's fiber service is good, but it's not yet available in most Cincinnati neighborhoods.  They seem to be rolling it out randomly -- It's available in parts of Downtown and OTR but not others.  It's available in Corryville but not Clifton Heights.  Yet it is available as far out as Hyde Park and Ft. Thomas, KY.

Google's service will be about 2.5x faster that Cincinnati Bell's.  Also, Google is providing the physical connection and maintaining the infrastructure, but allowing you to pick the ISP of your choice.  It's possible that Google, Cincinnati Bell, AT&T, Time Warner, AOL, and others would all be competing for your business via the Google-owned lines, theoretically driving down costs.

It's the same deal with AT&T UVerse.  I don't know that it's in any part of downtown Cleveland yet.  The saddest part is that I live across the street from a giant friggin fiber optic node!

[Sherman Cahal]

Cincinnati Bell's fiber service is down the street from me in OTR/downtown, yet I don't have it

[taestell]

Not to spam.... but if you live in Cincinnati, please join the Facebook group and invite your friends to join.  We currently have 600+ members, but some other cities have way more... the Huntsville, Alabama page has almost 2,000.  I think Google is going to seriously take into consideration how many people in each city are promoting the service (guaranteed customers), how active people in that city are on the Internet, and what other Internet options are available (more likely to go to cities with few high-speed options).

(There is also a group for Columbus.)

[GCrites80s]

The main reason for this is sprawl, just like how cell phone service overseas is $15/mo unlimited with no contracts. Since most other countries don't have such a sprawl problem, their cell phone networks are much simpler and cheaper to operate.

[David]

The main reason for this is sprawl, just like how cell phone service overseas is $15/mo unlimited with no contracts. Since most other countries don't have such a sprawl problem, their cell phone networks are much simpler and cheaper to operate.

15 a month!? Wow.

[Loretto]

Europe also doesn't operate on the subsidized phone model.  You buy your phone outright.