Is Google Fiber a Good Investment?
We have received many questions about Google and their Google Fiber services. Here are some of our thoughts about Google Fiber, which has been advertised all over the country.
First, I would like to state that Google is not actually laying metro Ethernet fiber-optics, based on a conversation we had with the head of their business development department in California. Google is laying coaxial cable, which is not fiber-optics. Google has targeted cities where they are building out their coax cable network to provide affordable internet to both homes and small businesses. Their pricing model for internet is great on the point that it is low cost, with month to month contracts and no upfront costs for install. But when something goes wrong with the internet, who do you call? They are an internet based company that handles most of their conversations through online chat. This might be somewhat of a problem especially if you’re a busy restaurant during lunch hours and your Point of Sale machines cannot process credit cards. If I was a small business I would not put my chances on Google’s marketed internet services unless you had a backup internet to switch over to in case the primary goes down.
The other issue is that Google is sub-contracting out work to build out the coax to other companies. These companies are installing the coax into small business and homes. Comcast does the same thing as well for the build out piece, but Comcast has been doing it for a long time working through the issues and problems that come along with sub-contractors. There have been multiple news articles published about the terror these sub-contractors have been bringing to residents because of issues with the build outs. I have included a link to article written by KXAN news organization based out of Austin, Texas that illustrates the horrors of the Google Fiber build out that left residents homes flooded.
Our recommendation about Google Fiber
My recommendation is if you choose to go with Google Fiber and you are a business, make sure to have a backup internet circuit in case google goes down because your business will be greatly affected and may take days to get your primary internet fixed.
Google Fiber is a trademark of Google Inc.