Quote:
Originally Posted by Kushan
Then why were Google talking to CityFibre at all?
You're right about the situation in the US and it's an appalling one, but I think Google's reasoning is that not enough was being invested in the infrastructure so they took matters into their own hands in the place that mattered most - their own back yard, where arguably the situation was worse.
Europe is certainly much better, but I wouldn't go so far as to say it's the best choice. FTTC speeds of 80Mbit might be a great jump from where we were a few years ago, but it still pales in comparison to what Google wants to provide - and that's before even looking at the upstream. Even if Virgin were to double their speeds again tomorrow, it wouldn't compare to Google's pure fibre so I wouldn't rule out Google deploying at all. I'm sure they will, eventually, though it looks as though they'd rather partner with an existing ISP than build the entire network themselves. |
I agree with most of your comments. I don't think it will harm Google for it to have a small degree of involvement with fibre outside the US. I see this more as a way of it encouraging incumbent operators to invest in faster broadband than for Google to want to own sizeable networks of its own. Hence the CityFibre talks.