
San Antonio: Google Fiber on Hold - esaym
http://tpr.org/post/san-antonio-pushes-pause-google-fiber-deployment
======
quasse
After searching around San Antonio's terrible local news sites for a while, I
finally found a picture of the utility building which has put the project on
hold:
[http://static-21.sinclairstoryline.com/resources/media/8fc84...](http://static-21.sinclairstoryline.com/resources/media/8fc84e17-9488-4ccf-b2c7-df21e5731323-large16x9_GoogleFiberHut.jpg?1483656014608)

I don't know about everyone else, but my local city has much larger and much
uglier utility buildings all over the place for storing municipal equipment.  I
guess forcing an entire city to live with terrible internet service from
incumbent providers seems like a good trade off to avoid having 17 such sheds
distributed across an entire city when you're an interfering busybody. 

~~~
sqldba
One of the problems in the email is that some huts have been located very
close to residences and make a lot of noise 24/7. 

Maybe there's something to it. 

~~~
sambe
The article is very light on details, direct link to email:

[https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4yHnbgE5ocJbUJpWFJGYUVVajg...](https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4yHnbgE5ocJbUJpWFJGYUVVajg/view)

Is this really NIMBYism?  People honestly can't stand a small utility building? 
It's strikes me as slightly odd that the person is sure that the huts make a
lot of noise, but unsure if they operate 24/7 - could this be a way of
phrasing that the information comes from a third party? 

~~~
jsz0
The noise is probably from the air conditioner units which is why the person
is unsure how often they operate.  They can be quite loud and irritating. 

~~~
guelo
The neighbor's house next door also has air conditioning.  Why would the hut
have to be louder than that? 

~~~
jsz0
They don't necessarily have to be louder but the two AC units shown in the
photo appear to be of the 'louder than a car idling next door' variety.  At
full bore on a hot summer day you probably wouldn't want to try having a
conversation within 10-15ft of them.  Hard to say without knowing the details
of the sizing or any aftermarket soundproofing they may not be visible in the
photo.  The neighbors may have a legitimate reason to be upset. 

------
Johnny555
I hope they can get the power companies to get rid of those far uglier
electrical substations too. 

People want infrastructure, not the infrastructure to support the
infrastructure. 

This same NIMBY attitude is what kept me from getting faster U-Verse service
in my SF neighborhood, because they didn't want the (much smaller) U-Verse
cabinets on the street... which left me with Comcast as my only high speed
internet choice (with unreliable service -- 10 minute outages 3 or 4 times a
week).  I was so far from the CO that DSL was around 800kbit. ( to be fair, the
Comcast problem could have been due to poor interior wiring, but TV worked, so
the landlord was unwilling to do anything about it). 

~~~
gregmac
I'm assuming that is a typo and you're not complaining that you could "only"
get 800 megabits per second..

~~~
Johnny555
Yeah sorry, meant kbit, fixed. 

------
nikmobi
I thought Google Fiber was on hold entirely (everywhere) now[1]?  Did I
misunderstand that? 

[1] [http://arstechnica.com/information-
technology/2016/10/google...](http://arstechnica.com/information-
technology/2016/10/google-fiber-laying-off-9-of-staff-will-pause-plans-
for-10-cities/)

~~~
bsharitt
According the article you just linked, San Antonio was on the list of cities
that Google was still committed to with a separate list of paused/canceled
cities that San Antonio isn't on. 

------
namuol
I'd drag a 50x30 shack around on a chain everywhere I went if it meant
bringing Google Fiber to my area. 

------
Animats
Here's Sonic's installation video for San Francisco.[1]

Google is talking about San Francisco, but Sonic already has fiber in the
entire Sunset and Richmond Districts.  Gigabit fiber for $58 per month.  Rather
than issuing press releases, Sonic is quietly installing fiber. 

Their lowest level nodes are boxes on poles.  No idea where the next level of
concentration is, but they're definitely not putting shipping container sized
boxes in SF parks. 

SF just passed a new law requiring landlords to allow any network or cable
provider to install in their building.  No more exclusive deals and kickbacks
with Comcast. 

Google just isn't very good at this business. 

[1] [https://www.sonic.com/sanfrancisco](https://www.sonic.com/sanfrancisco)

------
joeskyyy
50x30?!  hahahaha I used to live in San Antonio.  San Antonio is MASSIVE land
wise, and very sprawling.  There's absolutely no density problems what-so-ever. 

Ridiculous. 

------
wiggity
As a San Antonio resident, tech industry worker, and optimist about the city's
future tech relevance, this is sadly representative of the growing pains we
have to overcome.  NIMBY, sure, but also simple ignorance about how important
this could be, and how some huge the returns could be on such small
sacrifices. 

Efforts to expand the city's tech scene [1, 2, 3] and a significant tech
industry driven by notable employers [4, 5, 6, 7] are too often offset by
middle-child syndrome among SA's TX peer cities, and misguided conservatism
about preserving aspects of the city very few people would miss.  Generally
speaking, the city is sprawling and not particularly scenic, and I could name
50 eye-sores worse than a few equipment shelters. 

There's no reason we couldn't eventually share in and augment Austin's cachet,
both cultural and technological (we're already trending towards a south-Texas
megalopolis), but we'll have to embrace our strengths and cast off some of
these provincial weaknesses. 

Crossing my fingers. 

1\. [https://www.satechbloc.com/](https://www.satechbloc.com/)

2\. [http://buildsecfoundry.com/](http://buildsecfoundry.com/)

3\. [http://geekdom.com/](http://geekdom.com/)

4\. [https://www.usaa.com/](https://www.usaa.com/)

5\. [https://www.rackspace.com/](https://www.rackspace.com/)

6\. [http://www.24af.af.mil/](http://www.24af.af.mil/)

7\. [https://www.nsa.gov/about/cryptologic-
centers/texas/](https://www.nsa.gov/about/cryptologic-centers/texas/)

~~~
classybull
Having lived in both San Antonio and Austin, I wouldn't actually mind much if
San Antonio's tech scene caught up.  I'm at the point I'm contemplating home
ownership, and the fact that a decent house in Austin is starting to hit the
$400k market while San Antonio's is literally half of that makes San Antonio
very attractive nowadays, especially if they ever get shit together and build
a rail between the cities.  But my employment prospects are severely diminished
there, particularly companies that offer the standard tech work environment
and benefits. 

And yes, before anyone says anything, I know that Austin is still relatively
affordable compared to some of the other tech hubs, but its still its expense
is still growing quickly. 

------
chiph
NIMBY strikes again.  But to be honest, a 30' x 50' (9 x 15 meters) equipment
shelter is not small.  Even I might have objections. 

~~~
ensignavenger
I would have no objection to a 30' x 50' Google hut in my neighborhood park if
it meant having Fiber Internet available. 

~~~
sqldba
Parks are parks though.  They're not meant to hold internet buildings and other
large infrastructure buildings.  Why not locate them on commercial space or
similar? 

~~~
DannyBee
Certainly you realize if it was that simple it would have been done. 

~~~
x0x0
But was it cost, lack of available commercial space at the correct nexuses, or
??? 

~~~
DannyBee
Does it matter? ( I ask seriously) I think you can safely assume that Google
would avoid this problem if the cost was not going to seriously affect their
plans, because it would be dumb not to.  Given that, whether the cost makes it
impossible to profit, or the space has to be where it is for logistical
reasons, or ... doesn't seem to matter much to me. 

~~~
x0x0
Perhaps Google perhaps didn't understand quite how delicate certain community
members are. 

Personally, I would have assumed that the city / council would be pretty
cognizant of that and, once the city council bought in, it was likely to be
ok. 

------
ckeck
It's ok, AT&T has been aggressively rolling out their fiber service in San
Antonio the past year and it's quite good! 

Same $70/mo, no data mining, no data caps, no equipment rental fee...and a
cool 930-940 Mbps bi-directional...I'm happy :)

------
kc10
Google announced Fiber in several bay area cities at least three years ago. 
Last year there was a news article that the project has been suspended as they
can't access the existing utility poles to lay the fiber optic line. 

------
rawoke083600
If you are in South Africa...
[https://www.fibretiger.co.za](https://www.fibretiger.co.za)

------
trhway
seems like a bad UX design. 

------
knodi123
I live in Austin, in an area google has designated "the rest of the city", and
it's been "coming soon" for a couple of years now. 

~~~
iainmerrick
In parts of Austin and San Antonio you can already get fiber from Grande, at a
decent price.  Why are people so fixated on Google? 

Edit to add: googling for info on this, it looks like Google recently bought a
stake in Grande! ([ http://www.rcrwireless.com/20160816/network-
infrastructure/g...](http://www.rcrwireless.com/20160816/network-
infrastructure/google-fiber-could-leverage-telco-cable-acquisitions-tag4)) If
you can't beat 'em, buy them. 

~~~
b3b0p
I'm in Austin and have access to AT&T Fiber, Google Fiber, and I think even
Grande Fiber (I live downtown).  All are about the same price.  Before I got
Google Fiber I had AT&T Fiber.  There is absolutely zero difference in speed up
and down.  I don't get the fixation of Google Fiber either.  If you can get
fiber from any provider at affordable pricing, jump all over it. 

~~~
spacemanmatt
I buy plenty of "bandwidth" from TWC but I do not get the streaming quality I
expect from youtube or netflix.  It always starts out HD enough, but it always
falls back to a much lower quality after a few minutes.  SpeedTest results
suggest this should not happen, but I know my way around the cable company
fuckery enough to see that a less-tolled route would probably be superior,
even at half the max bandwidth. 

~~~
b3b0p
I had this problem with U-Verse DSL when I lived in Tulsa. 

I did not have this issue with AT&T Fiber in Austin.  They do not appear to be
throttling any services or websites like I experienced with AT&T U-Verse DSL
in Tulsa. 

------
randomerr
I'll never had Google Fiber in my lifetime! 

------
revelation
This is hilarious for a country that takes the "put it all on wooden poles"
approach to their cabling.