Google Fiber To Acquire Gigabit Internet Provider Webpass (techcrunch.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Google Fiber has announced a deal to acquire high-speed internet service provider Webpass. Webpass is a 13-year-old company that provides high-speed internet, including gigabit service, for businesses and residential customers across parts of the U.S.. Webpass is most widely known in California, with service running in San Fransisco, Oakland, Emeryville, Berkeley and San Diego. It also has service in Miami, Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Chicago, and Boston. The President of Webpass, Charles Barr, said in a blog post: "Joining Google Fiber will be a great development for our users because the companies share the same vision of the future and commitment to the customer," he said. "Google Fiber's resources will enable Webpass to grow faster and reach many more customers than we could as a standalone company." The acquisition should help Google Fiber with its plans to grow to more than 20 U.S. cities in the near future, helping connect to business and residential markets.

Comments

And nothing for rest of America.

[jellomizer]

Not everyone lives in big cities. Those who live in Rural areas who need high speed internet (sometimes even more than city folks) are still left out because such areas are unprofitable.

Re:And nothing for rest of America.

[cjjjer]

Yeah but it's Google's playground...

Re:And nothing for rest of America.

[jellomizer]

Internet connectivity has become a core service that we to function in modern society. Much like how landlines were in the past generation. Or Electricity and Plumbing the generation before.

The Rural people actually have a bigger need for internet as they don't have ready access to many other services so they use the internet to communicate with people in the distances for their needs. It isn't a short drive to your local post office or government officials to fill out paperwork. Or to try to do a quick stop by at an office during business hours. Or wait hours on the phone for basic service.

When the cities get gigabit internet website grow larger and more complex to offer features that are now available to the faster speeds, leaving the rural population unable to use their slower speed connections.

Re:And nothing for rest of America.

[houghi]

So get me up to speed here (see what I did there?) You decide to live in a place where you know that essentials (need) are not available? Perhaps the choice of where you live was not that well made.

"But I was born here and things changed and when I bought it, I did not have that need". Well, either you do not actually need it as you are able to exist without it, or you DO need it and then you NEED to move to a place where what is essential for you is available.

This goes not only for fast Internet, this also goes for things like water, electricity or roads or the lack of them or whatever your needs are.

Re:And nothing for rest of America.

[Pseudonymous Powers]

Not to be a jerk about it but... so what? Why is it that people want to live in the sticks and cry that they don't have everything that places that have more than 10,000 people per square mile have?... Maybe by the time I retire I can actually live someplace with a population density under 20/sqm and get good internet service but I'm not going to fool myself that it makes good business sense to do it today.

People have been saying that for 20 years now. What we've learned in those decades is that it will probably never make more business sense to build infrastructure in the country when you can make more money maintaining and/or rebuilding that infrastructure in a city instead.

The real problem, in my view, is that we only have two or three telecoms companies in the United States. They have no interest in serving the few (hundred million) people who choose to live in the middle of nowhere, so they don't. That would theoretically be okay, because in a free market, some smaller, more local companies would pick up the slack and build out to those underserved area. But the big companies won't let that happen. They bribe state and federal legislators to make laws that make competing with them effectively illegal, even in places where they don't actually compete.

So will their existing customers get hit...

[Anonymous Coward]

... with forced binding arbitration clauses too?

What internet should be

[lfp98]

Took a look at their home page https://webpass.net/residentia... Compared to Verizon or Comcast, it's heaven on earth. A flat $550 a year, no asterisks, no teaser rates, no setup charges, no equipment rentals, no bundled content nobody wants, and free installation. I can't even tell what I'd have to pay Verizon to get the same service but I know it's at least twice that.

Re:What was the stated point of Google Fiber again

[pak9rabid]

I'm guessing this is the only way that they can get into their home turf.

Re: What was the stated point of Google Fiber agai

[WindBourne]

Huh? Acquiring small companies is not an issue. Mergers of large ones is. And Google is the smallest in the gig arena.

Still

[ThatsNotPudding]

Google, at the end of the day, is still an advertising agency (read: you and your information are a commodity to be sold).

TANSTAAFL