Comments on: Google Fiber signs multi-year patent deal with Rovi for TV service

By: Shaker Cherukuri

Shaker Cherukuri — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 13:56:00 +0000

Google owns most of the Dark Fiber in the ground (acquired after the dot-com bust) so they do not have to use the likes of Level 3 for the backbone.
Fiber needs to be lit though. And yes, it needs to fill the last mile.
Now what else can do that?
WiFi, Super WiFi, 4G+ etc. Internet of Things, ipv6, Fiber to wireless bottleneck alleviation?

By: symbolset

symbolset — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 02:02:00 +0000

Google Fiber’s rollout only seems slow because we want it so badly. Uptake has been huge so far, with 46 fiberhoods out of 200 meeting their qualification quota in the first week of a six-week rally period. One fiberhood has already surpassed 25% of all the single family homes in it pre-registered and many are very close to that. This small test rollout they are just shaking the bugs out of the process – adding multifamily units for example, and methods for troubleshooting registration problems. As they optimize it they can scale immensely.

Relying on social media and online subscriptions is a very Googly thing to do to keep the costs down. Personally I would augment that plan with canvasser teams, as for coverage of homes nothing beats feet on the street. But it’s going very well so far.

This is not a product like the iPad you can have fabricated by a chinese company and drop-shipped to the end-user. A fiber network must be custom built in place and custom work is the enemy of efficiency.

By: Good ol' JS

Good ol' JS — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 19:09:00 +0000

I wonder what the channel lineup will be like. I’m sure as more stations hear that Google is becoming a player in the TV market, they’ll sign up as well. I mean who better to get TV stations ad dollars than Google?