Google Fiber Vs 5g

[Cody]

After watching a crazy amount of machine and manpower install google fiber in my neighborhood recently, it struck me as odd that so much is being invested into high speed internet when there is "promise" of high speed wireless internet around the corner.

If 5g is as potentially fast as they say it is (up to 20 giga bits), wouldn't that essentially make fiber optic obsolete? Wouldn't all of that infrastructure investment be wasted as the 5g network gets put into place? Isn't 20 gigabits 20x faster than fiber is capable of?

Legit question.

*I realize the space lasers have caused some of the 5g towers to transmit COVID and magnetize children, but let's stick to the actual question.

 

[Gravy]

More faster is more faster.

 

[Spork]

My thought is if your cell company is going to remain charging you per GB then it's all for nothing. There are some wireless plans that claim to be unlimited but price is usually more than you pay for traditional fiber.

 

[Kevin B.]

Fiber is never going to be obsolete, barring a really crazy breakthrough in wireless tech. There's all kinds of signal loss and interference when broadcasting a wireless signal that you don't have on fiber. When it comes to raw bandwidth over distance, 5g can't hang. Not even close. And then there's inherent security issues with wireless that just don't even exist with a fiberoptic network.

But it takes a bunch of infrastructure to support a fiber network. That's where wireless et all comes in. It's easier to deploy, more convenient for the user, etc. So ISPs and wireless providers are going to be doing a dance for a while now, balancing which tech is best for which users and figuring out how to wring the most money out of their customers. I expect that with 5g and future advances, wireless is going to take a bigger share of the last mile between the data provider and the consumer. But fiber isn't going away for a long long time.

 

[I Lean]

These discussions always make me sad and frustrated.

 

[DAA]

I suspect that at the end of the 5g rainbow there are big fiber pipes.

- DAA

 

[Kevin B.]

And speaking of that industry, the thing that pisses me off is they often only put that fiber cable about 6” into the ground which means they often get damaged when roadwork crews come in to work on the road. The cable itself is not protected by anything more than a millimeter of plastic sheathing around it and fiber is the most expensive utility to repair. At a minimum it’s a few thousand dollars for a repaired line and I know of one instance of a repair that was $100k, for a line that got hit with an excavator.

It would be interesting to compare notes some time. I don't work in the field, I drive a desk and do everything remote. But I'd guess about 25% of what I do is dealing with the fallout from one of your guys getting a little too happy with the bucket. And when they do the official RFO after it's all over, almost every time it's blamed on a failure to call locates or they called them and then ignored 'em. Sometimes I'm sure there's times the blue stakes guys just get it wrong. It would be fun to hang out with you on a job and see it from your perspective.

I suspect that at the end of the 5g rainbow there are big fiber pipes.

- DAA

That's changing, a bit. Used to be we had bundles and bundles of copper T1s into each cell tower. Then we had fiber going into each cell tower, and then bundles of fiber going into each tower. Now we have a bundle of fiber going into one tower and they use microwave and other wireless tech to bounce that our to every tower near by. So they're getting better at transferring data wirelessly and they're gonna keep getting better. And it saves 'em money, cuts down on install costs and maintenance for them and us. But boy does it make a mess when once of Chance's buddies finds a fiber conduit and Verizon loses coverage to half a city. Vice presidents get out of bed with a quickness.

But yeah, pull back the curtain and it's all fiber. It will be for some time yet.

 

[Kiel]

So while painting the house this weekend, we ripped off the Google fiber line from my house. I called after we were done for the day, about 5pm, by 6 a crew had been by and redid the connection no charge. An hour turn around....damn

 

[Hickey]

Fiber is racist.

 

[jeeper]

I don't know much about either.. but I do know that having multiple options is always better for everyone. Keeps prices down and speeds up.

 

[I Lean]

I don't know much about either.. but I do know that having multiple options is always better for everyone. Keeps prices down and speeds up.

This is exactly why I'm sad. I have one option for innernet at my house, and it's a WISP. Zero wired or fiber options for me. I would welcome seeing equipment and infrastructure around.

 

[Homefryy]

So while painting the house this weekend, we ripped off the Google fiber line from my house. I called after we were done for the day, about 5pm, by 6 a crew had been by and redid the connection no charge. An hour turn around....damn

I have Google Fiber and the other month my internet must have been out for a 2.5ish hours but I never noticed it. I only realized when I got an email saying they were refunding me $0.50 due to an outage. They refund 2x what you pay per unit of time for the length of time the outage occurred. So at $70/month it breaks down to about $0.10 an hour that you are paying. If your internet is down for an hour that month they refund you $0.20.

It is nice to have an ISP that actually provides the speeds they advertise instead of "up to" those speeds and acknowledges when they fail to provide that service and refunds you for it.

 

[Hickey]

This is exactly why I'm sad. I have one option for innernet at my house, and it's a WISP. Zero wired or fiber options for me. I would welcome seeing equipment and infrastructure around.

We have a horrible Comcast option and another one that isn't even worth mentioning. No plans for the fiber out here that I know of.

 

[Cody]

I like that Google fiber gave me a mesh type router modum thinger setup. I now get way better internet in my back yard and the back rooms of the house. It's also not centurylink, so plus plus.