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Google Fiber Drops Free Basic Service In Its Original City (engadget.com)
An anonymous reader writes: When Google Fiber first rolled out in Kansas City, it offered a free 5Mbps service if you were willing to pay a construction fee. As of recent, Google has quietly dropped that free tier in its first Fiber area, and has replaced it with a 100Mbps option that costs $50 per month. Anyone using the free tier has until May 19th to say they want to keep it. Note: Google will still offer the free service in low-income areas. Google Fiber customers in Austin and Provo still have the choice of the free internet option; Atlanta never had it to start with. Recode suggests this may reflect a broader change in strategy: Google has fiercer competition from incumbent carriers, so it may have to offer a fast-but-affordable selection to get those customers for whom the gigabit option is either too costly or sheer overkill.
As surprising as it might seem to some the Norks, Chinese and lost US battalions kill less Japs combined per decade than crazy gun people in the US kill every week.
I would say the fear is slightly unwarranted.
Obligatory "I live in Romania and I have a 1Gbit (up/down) connection for less than $15 a month.". And it really does work at those speeds. When I installed WoW it downloaded the client at 100MB/s, 19GB went so fast I thought I already had it installed previously.
The thing is 3g/4g connections while cheap still have data caps which sucks.
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This is more analogous to paying for installation of a beer tap, but then having it dispense unlimited free beer (but at a slower rate than you might like). Google's saying that now you need to fork over $50/mo, but you'll get unlimited beer dispensed at 20x the rate. It's still a way better deal than anything the competitors are offering, especially considering how vital the beer is for getting any work done.
Yes, its the standard argument. But densely populated areas in US like New York still don't seem to have the same Internet value as Japan.
This is more analogous to paying for installation of a beer tap, but then having it dispense unlimited free beer (but at a slower rate than you might like). Google's saying that now you need to fork over $50/mo, but you'll get unlimited beer dispensed at 20x the rate. It's still a way better deal than anything the competitors are offering, especially considering how vital the beer is for getting any work done.
Yes, but if I paid for the installation of a beer tap that promised to give me 3 beers a day indefinitely then I would be pissed if all of a sudden they said I had to pay $50/month for 60 beers for day. I have no desire to drink 60 beers a day. The extra beer is wasted on me. Even if they can no longer offer a free service, they need to respect their original agreement by refunding the construction fee or at the very least offer a similar low bandwidth option for $10/month. At $50/month anyone who was happy with 5M/s is likely going to move to something else. There are plenty of cheaper options under $50/month whether it is DSL or tethering that will net you 5M/s. The people on the 5M plans don't want 100M, if they did then they likely would have signed up for the 1G plan at only $20/month more.