Alphabet orders Google Fiber budget slashed after sluggish growth
22 replies, posted
[Quote]Alphabet is slashing the budget for its high-speed fiber optic internet service and pushing for a cheaper alternative: wireless. In an effort to roll out Google Fiber to a lot of cities very quickly, the company spent too much money and is now being reeled back in by parent Alphabet, according to The Information.
The report says that Google had expected to land 5 million subscribers over the course of five years, but the company's actual progress was much slower. At the end of 2014 Google Fiber only had 200,000 subscribers. Its TV service has also suffered from sluggish growth. Last month, CEO Larry Page reportedly asked Google Fiber head Craig Barratt to cut his staff in half, to 500 people, and reduce costs of delivering fiber to customers' homes to one-tenth of their current rate. [/quote]
[url]https://news.fastcompany.com/google-fiber-hits-speed-bumps-as-alphabet-looks-to-cut-costs-4017742[/url]
Sigh... And my morning starts ironically with 'OK google, navigate to Department of Labor"...
Google has been very lucky so far. They have continuously overreached with their investments but momentum has kept them going.
Its a shame because their internet service is actually very good for a fantastic price.
[editline]26th August 2016[/editline]
What a real shame of this is that laying fiber isn't cheap and some markets will require a lot of money to penetrate too. They got lucky in KC due to existing fiber.
This confuses me really, as there's a lot of regulations about WiFi, i.e. a 2.4GHz signal can max be sent at 1 watt or so.
How are they gonna cover huge areas without having to set up a ton of signal transmitters?
[QUOTE=Tools;50951145]This confuses me really, as there's a lot of regulations about WiFi, i.e. a 2.4GHz signal can max be sent at 1 watt or so.
How are they gonna cover huge areas without having to set up a ton of signal transmitters?[/QUOTE]
Not to mention without jamming the crap out of the spectrum and still providing 1Gbit service.
[QUOTE=Tools;50951145]This confuses me really, as there's a lot of regulations about WiFi, i.e. a 2.4GHz signal can max be sent at 1 watt or so.
How are they gonna cover huge areas without having to set up a ton of signal transmitters?[/QUOTE]
You can apply for licences that allow you to transmit at higher power. How do you think telecoms can do it?
Understandable that growth is slow due to very few test cities that aren't overly populated. Rolling out fibre cables is expensive, but in the end that's how you're going to get customers. They should at least try bringing it to a well populated city to get subscriber numbers up before slashing budgets.
[QUOTE=Zet;50951194]Understandable that growth is slow due to very few test cities that aren't overly populated. Rolling out fibre cables is expensive, but in the end that's how you're going to get customers. They should at least try bringing it to a well populated city to get subscriber numbers up before slashing budgets.[/QUOTE]
They did. Atlanta. And that was after getting a lot done in Salt Lake Utah
My whole office was build to handle the Atlanta project and now our budget has been almost completely killed. Myself and 3 others have already been terminated and most of the office will be gone by end of November.
Couldn't they figure something out, it's Google after all?
Wireless sucks anything gaming related sadly.
that can't be possible without raising latency, can it?
[QUOTE=Tools;50951145]This confuses me really, as there's a lot of regulations about WiFi, i.e. a 2.4GHz signal can max be sent at 1 watt or so.
How are they gonna cover huge areas without having to set up a ton of signal transmitters?[/QUOTE]
thats for consumer. commercial applications can go much higher
[QUOTE=Tools;50951145]This confuses me really, as there's a lot of regulations about WiFi, i.e. a 2.4GHz signal can max be sent at 1 watt or so.
How are they gonna cover huge areas without having to set up a ton of signal transmitters?[/QUOTE]
A 3.5GHz wifi dish will be no bigger than a satellite TV dish. Just point it at the nearest station.
If you want a non-commercial example of just how well this works check out [url]https://www.hamwan.org/[/url], a 5.8GHz wifi network for ham radio operators.
But Google will likely have more stations with higher bandwidth, I believe the FCC is granting them special permissions to enable so many clients using very high data rates.
good luck having proper wireless internet in florida, home of the hurricanes
I wonder if this means my city is never going to get Google Fiber.
They said they were coming here two or three years ago.
Still no word on it.
[QUOTE=Fourier;50951326]Couldn't they figure something out, it's Google after all?
Wireless sucks anything gaming related sadly.[/QUOTE]
It really doesn't though. My 19 mile wireless stretch is less than 2ms end to end. I get better ping than I ever did on any cable infrastructure.
[editline]26th August 2016[/editline]
[QUOTE=Cakebatyr;50953412]A 3.5GHz wifi dish will be no bigger than a satellite TV dish. Just point it at the nearest station.
If you want a non-commercial example of just how well this works check out [url]https://www.hamwan.org/[/url], a 5.8GHz wifi network for ham radio operators.
But Google will likely have more stations with higher bandwidth, I believe the FCC is granting them special permissions to enable so many clients using very high data rates.[/QUOTE]
Sadly 3.65 has an extremely small amount of channels for carriers. If you up it to any decent channel width you literally get one.
[QUOTE=Fourier;50951326]Couldn't they figure something out, it's Google after all?
Wireless sucks anything gaming related sadly.[/QUOTE]
If your home wireless network is actually impacting your gaming experience it may be time to move off you 802.11b shitbox router perhaps?
And for further reaching, city-wide wireless or something? You're still going to experience most of the latency in the Internet communication itself rather than communicating with the wireless radio.
[QUOTE=S31-Syntax;50951316]They did. Atlanta. And that was after getting a lot done in Salt Lake Utah
My whole office was build to handle the Atlanta project and now our budget has been almost completely killed. Myself and 3 others have already been terminated and most of the office will be gone by end of November.[/QUOTE]
You mean the Google office right across from Midtown Transit Station?
[QUOTE=S31-Syntax;50951316]They did. Atlanta. And that was after getting a lot done in Salt Lake Utah
My whole office was build to handle the Atlanta project and now our budget has been almost completely killed. Myself and 3 others have already been terminated and most of the office will be gone by end of November.[/QUOTE]
Shit sucks, I hope you find more work.
[QUOTE=download;50951155]You can apply for licences that allow you to transmit at higher power. How do you think telecoms can do it?[/QUOTE]
There's the 802.11ad wireless standard, it's pretty much a line of sight 60ghz microwave link that can handle speeds in excess of 3Gb/s. TP-link makes a router that uses it, and that band is 100% open and uncluttered because the only things using that frequency are satellites in geosync orbit.
[QUOTE=zombini;50954824]There's the 802.11ad wireless standard, it's pretty much a line of sight 60ghz microwave link that can handle speeds in excess of 3Gb/s. TP-link makes a router that uses it, and that band is 100% open and uncluttered because the only things using that frequency are satellites in geosync orbit.[/QUOTE]
Which goes out if you sneeze through it. Above 40ghz it starts being affected by the moisture in the air.
[QUOTE=zombini;50954824]There's the 802.11ad wireless standard, it's pretty much a line of sight 60ghz microwave link that can handle speeds in excess of 3Gb/s. TP-link makes a router that uses it, and that band is 100% open and uncluttered because the only things using that frequency are satellites in geosync orbit.[/QUOTE]
I was under the impression that microwave transmissions were phased out because they could be hazardous to your health
[QUOTE=phygon;50954891]I was under the impression that microwave transmissions were phased out because they could be hazardous to your health[/QUOTE]
What? No lol.
It's utter rubbish. Microwaves are used for essentially all wireless communication.
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