Google Fiber One Year Later: Is Gigabit Internet Worth the Hype?

It's been roughly a year since Google Fiber lit up its first connections in Kansas City, and the early reviews are in from actual subscribers — not Google's marketing team, not tech bloggers visiting for a day, but people who have lived with gigabit internet as their daily connection.

The short version: the speeds are real, the price is right, and the impact on the local broadband market has been exactly what competition advocates predicted.

Real Speeds, Real Users

Google Fiber promises 1 Gbps symmetrical — 1,000 Mbps down and 1,000 Mbps up — for $70 per month. We talked to a dozen Kansas City subscribers about their experience.

The consensus: speeds consistently hit 700 to 900 Mbps on wired connections, which is typical for gigabit fiber (overhead from the network equipment eats some of the theoretical maximum). Wi-Fi speeds vary widely depending on the router and distance, but most users report 100 to 300 Mbps over Wi-Fi — still dramatically faster than any other consumer service available.

One subscriber, a web developer who works from home, told us his backups to Google Drive went from an overnight process to something he does during a coffee break. A family of five said they run multiple HD Netflix streams, video calls, online gaming, and cloud storage simultaneously without any of it hiccupping.

Upload speed is the real game-changer that gets less attention. Most cable and DSL connections are heavily asymmetrical — Comcast might offer 25 Mbps down but only 5 Mbps up. Time Warner Cable's best plan in KC delivered 50 Mbps down and 5 Mbps up. Google Fiber's symmetrical 1 Gbps means uploads are 200 times faster than what those subscribers had before.

For anyone who uploads video, backs up to the cloud, works remotely with large files, or hosts anything from home, symmetrical gigabit is transformative.

The Free Tier Actually Works

Google Fiber's free tier — 5 Mbps down, 1 Mbps up, with a $300 construction fee — has gotten less attention but deserves mention. For households that can't afford or don't need gigabit, getting basic broadband at no monthly cost for seven years is a remarkable deal.

Several KC residents we spoke with signed up for the free tier and reported consistent, reliable 5 Mbps service. That's faster than many paid DSL plans in the area and adequate for basic browsing, email, and standard-definition streaming. It's not fast by 2013 standards, but free internet is free internet.

How Incumbents Responded

This is the part of the Google Fiber story that matters most for people who don't live in Kansas City.

Before Google Fiber arrived, Time Warner Cable's fastest plan in Kansas City was 50 Mbps for about $65 per month. Within months of Google's announcement, TWC launched a new tier: 100 Mbps for $44.99 per month in KC. They doubled the speed and dropped the price. In markets without Google Fiber competition, TWC's 50 Mbps plan still costs $65.

AT&T, which provides DSL and U-verse in the KC area, responded by announcing its own fiber-to-the-premises service called GigaPower — 300 Mbps for $70 per month in Kansas City, with plans to increase to 1 Gbps.

The pattern is unmistakable. For years, both companies insisted that faster speeds weren't technically feasible at lower prices, and that consumer demand for gigabit wasn't there. Google Fiber arrived, and suddenly both companies found they could deliver faster speeds at lower prices. The infrastructure didn't change overnight — the competitive pressure did.

Austin and Provo: Next in Line

Google announced two new Fiber cities this month: Austin, Texas, and Provo, Utah.

Austin makes strategic sense. It's a tech hub with a young, connected population and relatively permissive permitting for fiber construction. AT&T immediately announced it would bring GigaPower to Austin — before Google had even broken ground. The mere announcement of Google Fiber in a city forces incumbents to respond.

Provo is different. The city built a municipal fiber network called iProvo in 2004, which struggled financially and was eventually sold at a loss. Google is buying the iProvo infrastructure for $1, taking over the network, and upgrading it to Google Fiber. For Google, it's a cheap way to enter a market. For Provo residents, it's a rescue of a troubled municipal broadband project.

What Google Fiber Hasn't Fixed

For all the positive press, Google Fiber has real limitations.

Availability is extremely limited. Even within Kansas City, Google Fiber isn't available everywhere. The rollout has been neighborhood by neighborhood, and some areas are still waiting. Getting to full KC coverage has taken much longer than initially projected.

Installation backlogs. Subscribers in newly connected neighborhoods report wait times of several weeks to months for installation. Google's construction crews are working through a massive queue.

TV service is mediocre. Google Fiber's TV bundle ($120/month for gigabit internet plus TV) has gotten mixed reviews. The channel lineup is solid, but the set-top box interface is clunky compared to TiVo or even Comcast's X1 platform. Google's strength is internet, not television.

It's still just three cities. There are over 300 metropolitan areas in the United States. Google Fiber serves parts of one and has announced two more. The vast majority of Americans won't be able to get Google Fiber anytime soon, if ever.

The Real Impact

Google Fiber's greatest contribution isn't the service itself — it's proof that gigabit broadband can be built and sold profitably at $70 per month, and that the incumbents' claims about the impossibility of cheaper, faster service were always self-serving.

Every time Google announces a new Fiber city, incumbents in that city magically find ways to upgrade speeds and lower prices. That competitive dynamic is what America's broadband market needs, whether it comes from Google, municipal networks, or new market entrants.

The challenge is scaling that dynamic beyond the handful of cities where Google is willing to dig trenches. For the other 97% of the country, the duopoly of cable and DSL persists, and prices and speeds reflect it.

Google Fiber is the best thing to happen to American broadband in a decade. It just needs to happen a lot more.