This is exactly why it’s so hard to disrupt the industry perhaps most in need of disruption. I still think wireless options will ultimately be more viable, and the way this happens. And make no mistake, it will happen.
You know, if Google and Apple were still friends, they could combine their giant coffers and make it happen—and reap the rewards. Unfortunately, pipe dreams don’t happen.
Google Fiber is now live in Kansas City. Here’s how fast it is, according to one user, Mike Demarais. Guess we know where we’re going for our next vacation.
colincurtis says: This doesn’t tell the full story. KCK turned our whole map green. We lead a grassroots effort to sign up neighborhoods by canvassing and the city allocated funds for people who couldn’t afford the $10 fee so that no area was left behind.
» SFB says: Thanks for speaking up. It’s worth pointing out that while Kansas City, Missouri struggled to fill out its map, Kansas City, Kansas did much better. In related news, here are some more details on Google’s renewed efforts to sign up people in communities that didn’t turn out the first time around. — Ernie @ SFB
This is just one more example of people that are lower income, sometimes not higher educated people, being left behind. It makes me very sad.Kansas City, Mo. resident Margaret May • Expressing frustration with her neighborhood’s slow push to sign up for Google Fiber. May leads the neighborhood council in the Ivanhoe neighborhood, which is 46 percent black. Google said they could only sign up neighborhoods that had enough people pay a $10 preregistration fee for broadband access, and by Sunday’s deadline, only 32 percent of those that had signed up were black, while 54 percent were white, with predominantly-black neighborhoods lagging behind. The company plans to offer a second opportunity to sign up for those that missed the chance.
» But before you move to Kansas City … It’s worth noting that there are a few notable holdouts on the cable front — for example, there isn’t any AMC, CNN, the Disney Channel, HBO or ESPN, so “Game of Thrones” is off the table in the Google household. But on the other hand, if you download an episode of said show on The Pirate Bay at gigabit speeds, it’d take you less than five seconds. Seems like some major companies didn’t think this through …
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