The wishful thinking of you actually getting Google Fiber (or any fiber) in the next few decades. Unless you already have it, or a few other cases

Right now, there are plans for one other city to get Google Fiber, besides the one that has it.    The next city, starting out sometime next year, beginning in some place or another in that city.  That should come out sometime within the next year or year and a half until they actually start working on it.

Be that as proof of concept, experiment, publicity campaign, propaganda, fire under the staid interests of cable and phone and their non-competitive strangle-holds.    Potentially ignoring dark fiber and right of way and other fiber and cable and copper and PSTN and POTS and Satellite providers.   Not particularly important on the results side, just certainly a big deal on the implementation side of things.

But for now, forget about all that.    What (where) Google Fiber is?    Kansas City.    Both of them.

Oh, wow, but hey that's a whole big city, two cities, suburbs, lots of installs, right?    Yes, regardless of the sweetheart deals or what have you (that's just how it works) there is that -- it's someplace.  And it's now.

Yet what if you don't live in Kansas City?

Well, for that matter, what if you do.




Starting last year (2012) there was pretty much two (count 'em, two)  neighborhoods someplace or another in Kansas City up and running big-time, bells and whistles.  Or whatever.   I'm sure that's all prominently displayed and mapped out all over the place on the Google Fiber website.   You can absolutely easily find all sorts of information there, certainly.   Not just the past, and with the pace accelerating in both time and scope and size and intensity.

Where is it going?   The plans for what's already gone by, the Jan 2013 to Mar 2013 time-frame.   Huge areas of Kansas City, all fibered up, with many thousands of happy customers.   In a total honest, open fair way, no doubt.

Instead of just guessing, let's take a look at a map, shall we?

Or to see things a bit bigger towards the middle of that.

Hello, first quarter 2013!!!!

Just kidding of course.   This is a pretty big deal, and it's exciting.   This is going to grow and be better.    You can find that map of these next five neighborhoods  (Piper Schools, Delaware Ridge, Painted Hills, Open Door, Arrowhead)  over at their Google Fiber Blog.  (Those above pics are there too, considerably more zoomed in though I believe.)  Those Jan-Mar first-quarter dates are the dates where plans had to be chosen,   depending upon the neighborhood.

That's not that's necessarily when they started work on any of the installs in the neighborhoods, but the deadline for residents to sign up.    Big ad blitz there probably, besides the champions or whatever we'd call them working at it to make it a reality.  Who knows what else.    Downplaying the slowness while upplaying the potential, the dream, the future.

At any time within the next year or two, even in the city where the work has already started (should you live there) the odds are though that you aren't where they're putting it in.     And likely, we'd guess, those areas already have access to one or more of the available fiber services (FIOS, UVERSE, ETC) around.   Maybe not though, and certainly if so, more expensive.

We'll see how it goes, but if you hear talk of how Google Fiber is in your city or going to be in your city, or how this will create competition where you are, or how this will revolutionize Internet connectivity and speed?    Take it with a grain of salt.   (It's easy, just like what you did with Y2K and 2012)

This isn't to say that Google Fiber is a waste of time, or bad, because it's neither of those things.  Very useful and good.     A lot should be learned from the experiment, and what will be learned is not just how can you spend billions of dollars on a few neighborhoods in Kansas City and Austin over the next 2-5 (or even 25) years.

Plus that, given that up until now what's been done on a large open publicized scale has been just about nothing, Google is to be commended on their experiment.

Just we shouldn't be thinking any of us are going to get it ourselves any time soon.  (Unless you're in one of those seven neighborhoods in Kansas City, then, nevermind, you will be getting it soon.   Maybe.  As far as I know.)