Google Fiber

If Google gets enough people to sign up, they may offer a fiber-optic network that will compete with your local cable provider. With lower prices. The Google Fiber initiative is starting out in Kansas City.

Essentially, you have to pay a hookup fee of $300, but this can be mitigated the same way cell service is — you buy a two year contract, they waive the fee. Consider that you’ll pay $250 for the Nexus 7 they give you and it’s already a freaking deal right there.

The catch is that forty to eighty people in your neighborhood will also have to be interested before Google will wire you up. They’re calling it Fiberhoods. Frankly, at the prices they’re offering, they’re not going to have much of a problem.

Analysts are wondering what Google is going to make off all this and how they can possibly expand it across the nation. Well, let’s do the math. Let’s say all customers getting high-speed internet, about 48 million worth, defect to Google Fiber, and it’s hard to see why, precisely, they wouldn’t. 48 million times seventy five bucks, carry the two, let’s see, that seems to be about oh, $3.6 billion dollars. A month.

The best part of this idea is that there could eventually be competition for local cable services, and consumers will be able to pick and choose which works best for them. Of course, many things could go wrong with the plan between now and then. Google explains their Google Fiber in an hour-long video, but you can also read the short version at Uproxx. Link