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.

Comments

Can't have everything for free forever.

[Tyr07]

As long as they give you a good service at a reasonable price, it's reasonable.

Re:Can't have everything for free forever.

[GrumpySteen]

Oh bullshit. That excuse died when Google started providing Gigabit connections for $70/month which is quite comparable to the rates in Japan.

The defacto broadband monopolies have not only been refusing to upgrade their equipment (despite being given huge amounts of subsidies and tax breaks meant to let them do so), they've been degrading their service by throttling and adding caps in order to coerce their customers into paying for more expensive plans even in the most densely populated areas.

Re:Can't have everything for free forever.

[EvilSS]

Then that's fair enough but don't expect many of the ultracheap customers to remain customers if you only offer them the choice between a high price plan and an ultra high price plan. The fact that they are relatively cheap compared to other ultra fast connections is most likely irrelevant to people happy with 5M and will likely be able to find other plans under $50 from a different provider to switch to. Myself, I'm perfectly happy with my 1M connection although I wish I could get faster upload.

True, but there may not be any value in keeping them by offering a lower tier plan. I mean, they are paying $0 right now, so it's not like Google will lose any revenue from them departing for a cheaper ISP. It's possible based on the number of subscribers that are on that tier now that it wouldn't be worth it to offer a lower tier. I'm sure Google has done the math on this already before they decided how to proceed.