Here's Why You Will Instantly Dump Your Cable Company To Get Google Fiber
Google Fiber will soon be a viable cable alternative in many neighborhoods in Kansas City.
Hopefully it will also soon become an alternative in every city.
For $120 a month, Google Fiber brings you normal cable TV, a massive digital video recorder, and broadband Internet access that is 100-times as fast as your cable company's.
For $70 a month, you can get just the Internet access.
If that's not enough, there's one promise Google is making that will make cable customers everywhere jump for joy.
Google is promising that its installer will arrive when he or she says he will arrive — not force you to stay home for hours for an appointment "window."
It's a big country, so it will unfortunately likely take a while for Google to come to your neighborhood.
But if nothing else, here's hoping Google Fiber scares the bejeezus out of the cable industry, forcing cable companies to upgrade their own broadband services and finally put a bigger premium on customer service.
Google Fiber is a new tv and internet service rolling out in Kansas City.
The TV service is basically cable TV. The Internet service is 100-times as fast as your cable company's.
Together, the two services will cost you $120 a month, less than many cable bills. The Internet alone costs $70.
Google recently made a video that explains what Google Fiber is and how it works. Here are some screenshots....
Google Fiber is exactly what it sounds like: Fiber to your house.
Google is building out neighborhoods in Kansas City, piggybacking off the utility polls.
There are two steps in getting the service. In the first, Google "pulls" the fiber from the utility pole to your house.
This is what it looks like. A little glass fiber. Almost as thin as a thread.
Then, on home-installation day, the Google guy shows up in a truck.
In a promise that will scare cable companies everywhere, the Google Guy will show up when he says he's going to show up.
He will apparently be smiling.
The Google Guy will bring a bunch of network boxes. They come in stylish, color-coordinated packaging.
The Google Guy will pull the fiber into your house.
Then he'll install a "fiber jack" -- a sort of optical modem.
Then he'll unpack a "network box" -- a router for your house.
If you're getting TV service, you'll also get a "Storage Box" (a massive DVR) and a "TV box" for each TV.
The TV boxes can use WiFi and bluetooth to communicate with your TV, thus needing fewer wires.
The TV boxes chat with the Storage box through existing cable wiring.
Next, the Google Guy will give you a present: A free Nexus 7 tablet that you can use as your remote control. That's in exchange for a 2-year subscription.
And you're off!
Two analysts from BTIG Research, Rich Greenfield and Walt Piecyk, just went to Kansas City to check out how well Google Fiber works. The answer? Well. They clocked the Internet at very close to 1-gig speeds, upstream and downstream.
The TV service, by the way, features the "Holy Grail" of TV navigational interfaces... an interface in which you say what you want to watch and the system shows every place it's playing--network, cable, Netflix, etc. This is a big step toward TV as it ought to be.
Here, on the TV, the system shows that "Walking Dead" episodes are available on Netflix. Google Fiber doesn't have a deal with AMC yet.
The episode detail on the screen is familiar. This episode is available on Netflix, which presumably costs extra.
The rest of the interface options are familiar to anyone with an Apple TV or Netflix. You can buy stuff.
Or use the typical "channel" interface.
Or "discover" things you might like.
Here's the video in which Google explains Google Fiber
And here's BTIG's walkthrough of the TV interface.
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