Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Google Fiber Drops Free Basic Service In Its Original City (engadget.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the nothing-is-free dept.

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.

8 of 98 comments (clear)

  1. Something something..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    '...pray I don't alter it further.'

  2. Can't have everything for free forever. by Tyr07 · · Score: 4, Interesting

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

    1. Re:Can't have everything for free forever. by Noble713 · · Score: 5, Informative

      That's just depressing. I live in Japan and have Gigabit fiber (500 up/500down on Speedtest) for $30/month with no data cap. For $80 I get cellphone service (from a different company): unlimited 4G LTE and unlimited voice minutes for ~$80/month. Great for tethering my tablet or laptop when out of the house (or phones of friends visiting from out of Japan). America is raped by the service providers.

    2. Re:Can't have everything for free forever. by hvm2hvm · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

      --
      ics
    3. Re:Can't have everything for free forever. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      They have a large stable of miniskirt-wearing schoolgirls, constipated angry guys, giant mecha, and ninja to handle just those situations.

    4. Re:Can't have everything for free forever. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

    5. Re:Can't have everything for free forever. by jma05 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

  3. Government defined. Including Greenwich, CT by raymorris · · Score: 4, Informative

    Google Fiber offers free service to "affordable housing" developments, which is a government defined term, and "public housing", which means housing which subsidized by the taxpayers. Greenwich Connecticut has both.