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The Next Big Fiber Showdown: Austin

Posted by timothy on from the att-dsl-sure-leaves-me-unimpressed dept.

Nerval's Lobster writes "Google might have big plans to wire America with high-speed broadband, but at least one carrier isn't willing to let Google Fiber have a free run: AT&T has announced that it will deploy a '100 percent fiber' network in Austin, Texas, capable of delivering speeds of up to 1GB per second. That location is auspicious, given how Google's already decided to make Austin the next city to receive Google Fiber. Whereas Google plans on connecting Austin households to its network in mid-2014, however, AT&T promises to start deploying its own high-speed solution in December. But there's a few significant catches. First, AT&T's service will initially roll out to 'tens of thousands of customer locations throughout Austin' (according to a press release), which is a mere fraction of the city's 842,592 residents; second, AT&T has offered no roadmap for expanding beyond that initial base; and third, despite promises that the service will roll out in December, the carrier has yet to choose the initial neighborhoods for its expansion. Could this be a case of a carrier freaking out about a new company's potential to disrupt its longtime business?"

4 of 230 comments (clear)

  1. competition by asmkm22 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Funny what a little competition can do. Now if only this stuff could happen in other areas.

    1. Re:competition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Having multiple sets of fiber maintained is more expensive than a single set though. I know trash service provided by private companies is far less efficient, much more labor and much more fuel as trucks from multiple companies travel down the same road. If government laid the fiber and treated like a roadway (covering just the last mile) it'd have less cost than google and AT&T competing, then they could compete on the other many miles, with many other companies, because now right-of-ways aren't an issue.

  2. Why by interkin3tic · · Score: 5, Funny

    What is AT&T's plan here?

    CEO: "Gentlemen, google's competitive service challenges our freedom, our very way of life, our absurd profits. No longer will we be able to abuse customers and laugh as they threaten to leave us for better competitors, because there WILL BE a better option"
    All: "GASP!"
    CEO: "We have only one option. Stop them in Austin Texas. Throw everything we've got there. Be better than google."
    Member of the audience: "But Sir, how can we keep getting monopoly-level profits for doing very little if we do that?"
    CEO : (closes eyes) "We... can't."
    All: "NNOOOO!!"
    CEO: "But fear not! If we stop them in Austin Texas, they will give up expanding elsewhere! ... Probably? They'll just assume we're going to do it anywhere they announce next and will all hang themselves, at which point we can quadruple the costs for the austin fiber and everywhere else."
    All: "AMAZING!!!"

  3. Good luck to them by Mabonus · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I really enjoyed calling up to cancel after Google connected our house.

    "Why are you cancelling?"
    "I found a better service."
    "Can I ask what?"
    "Sure, I found 1,0000 Mbps for $70/mo"
    "Well. I can offer you 14Mbps for $40/mo"

    They followed up with a letter just yesterday saying how they were surprised I canceled since they have such a great service and offering a $300 gift card for re-upping. As far as I can tell they have no strategy for dealing with competing fiber rollouts and Austin doesn't sound like one either.