Google Fiber puts the ISPs to shame

As I predicted, Google’s fiber experiment in Kansas City is fast succeeding. As the rollout pushes forward, it’s educating the general population on what real broadband Internet service is like. If that weren’t enough, Google is tossing in goodies like HD television channels, DVRs, tablets, and cloud storage for seemingly free.

Make no mistake, Google is not just embarrassing the competition — it’s humiliating its rivals. It’s like Muhammad Ali vs. Napoleon Dynamite in a cage match. Some reports say that Time Warner, the incumbent ISP in the area, is going door to door, asking customers if they’re satisfied with their service. Time Warner can’t compete with Google at this game — Time Warner has worked hard at not investing in its infrastructure for years, leaving the carrier bereft of options other than to watch helplessly as its customer base dwindles. Time Warner has two choices: upgrade its infrastructure to match Google’s or bail out entirely. 

[ Also on InfoWorld: Google Fiber must succeed | Google in talks with Dish to create wireless network | Get the latest practical data center info and news with InfoWorld’s Data Center newsletter. ]

Now that Google Fiber is a reality and houses are connected, we see pleas like this one from a poor soul stuck in metropolitan Boston with a Comcast cable connection that would be an embarrassment in rural Romania. This is the sad reality of broadband in the United States, especially in the major cities.

It could be argued that the big ISPs deliver better service in rural areas (the ones they actually reach) due to the lower concentration of subscribers, as well as the nature of DSL and cable plants. This starves more densely populated areas of reasonable bandwidth — resulting in exactly the situation described by the disgruntled Comcast customer in Boston. Business-class services may be less impacted, but residential broadband is simply terrible in many of the population centers of the United States. That’s just depressing.

The reasons for this have been widely discussed for years: There’s little to no competition in these markets, and thus very little motivation for the incumbent ISPs to improve their service or their networks. I mean, what else are you going to do? Where else are you going to go?

You might have the opportunity to select DSL over cable, but if you want TV service, you wind up paying much more in combined costs. You might give wireless networks a try, but not if you want to do anything more than general-purpose Internet activities. Netflix, gaming, and a plethora of other activities aren’t going to fly on those networks due to a combination of factors, including latency, bandwidth, and data caps and fees.

Instead, there you are, in a major city, surrounded by cutting-edge technology and technology companies, resetting your crappy cable modem for the fifth time in a day, barely able to eke out a few megabits of bandwidth in the evening. Good luck complaining about it to your provider. It couldn’t care less.

ISPs now have a reason to be nervous. Time Warner was clearly worried about the impact of Google Fiber in Kansas City, and its fears have proven well founded. There was nothing Time Warner could have done about Google Fiber prior to the rollout in that city, but it could certainly take steps to become competitive with a Google Fiber service in other areas, if it starts acting now.

The million-dollar question is where will Google strike next: Seattle? Austin? Chicago? Des Moines? Chattanooga? There’s no way to know. All the big ISPs realize they have nothing that can compete with Google Fiber, and they’re sitting ducks in just about every territory they’ve ruled over for so long. They may slowly begin to admit their own sloth and indifference is to blame.

If Google has a sense of humor and wants to raise some blood pressure readings, it’ll deploy a fleet of Google Fiber vans to various cities of various sizes. I can just imagine Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, and Time Warner each with a war room containing a big map of the United States on the wall showing dots where Google Fiber vans have been spotted, with executives desperately trying to figure out where the next attack will occur. Maybe it will eventually dawn on them that the only way to fight the scourge of cheap, fast broadband is to provide it themselves.

This story, “Google Fiber puts the ISPs to shame,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Read more of Paul Venezia’s The Deep End blog at InfoWorld.com. For the latest business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.