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Comment by Operyl | Hacker News Reader

On the other hand, it seriously forced other ISPs to step up their game from what I hear. So not all is lost.

> other ISPs to step up their game

Eh. Spectrum (formerly TWC, formerly Insight) upped their max speeds. AT&T did a very limited Gigapower rollout to selected areas.

The lasting impact, if anything, will likely be that Google got the metro government to pass a one touch make ready ordinance and defend it in court.

And why wouldn't they step back their game if the competition does?

It’s a bit harder to put the cat back in the bag. I’m assuming (and hoping) it’ll take a few years for that kind of degradation, and some new competition (or municipal service) could make its way in.

I doubt they'll roll back speeds. Instead they'll increase the cost of the higher speeds significantly.

Once (multiple) ISPs invested in infrastructure, they have lower marginal cost so can stay and compete. Sure, there are still antitrust risks, but better than nothing.

Even price increases can take some time to do, as you have people in 1-2 year contracts. I just hope that’s enough time for competition, or that it doesn’t happen.

> Even price increases can take some time to do, as you have people in 1-2 year contracts.

It takes a while to do to those customers.

It can happen as soon as "let's update the webpage" for new customers. Especially when the only high speed internet game in town goes from three providers to two.

This. "Our special deal for new subscribers has ended." And they'll sign up all the people who were on Google Fiber and want to continue having those speeds at the new higher price point, which, of course, is only valid for the first 6 mos or a year, after which it increases to the new "normal" price.

With wireless 5G coming, people will have a real alternative to something that uses a physical line to the house. Brace yourselves, competition is coming.

Due to the wireless industry's bandwidth cap (or severe service degradation after soft-cap) as a standard feature, I have little hope for 5G.

Color me unconvinced about 5G.

Hope I'm wrong.

any company that price matched Google will shortly begin raising rates.

In Louisville neither AT&T nor Spectrum bothered to price match because Google never covered enough neighborhoods for them to care. Spectrum raised their rates considerable, with no infrastructure investment at all. AT&T did a modicum of infrastructure investment just to make it appear that they were doing anything at all.

I live in Louisville and I've had AT&T's Gigabit fiber product for over two years, in two different residences in different parts of the city. I frequently see new signs that they're deploying to new neighborhoods, including some neighborhoods that made me scratch my head a little. They're definitely making more than a modicum of investment in their infrastructure here.

Much of my neighborhood only qualifies for AT&T's 90s ISDN-era speed DSL, which they've confusingly rebranded Uverse despite not being proper broadband in 2019, and worse priced it to match real broadband Uverse. So you may have to pardon me if I'm deeply skeptical of AT&T's infrastructure investments.

I also have AT&T Gigabit fiber (through IgLou) and have been pretty pleased with the service. However, I'm fearful that with Google's pull-out AT&T will lose all motivation to improve and will just start raising prices instead.

This. Literally overnight, you'd see a 100%, 200%, or even more, increase in speeds. Unfortunately with those market pressures gone, companies will go back to not caring after this...

Be that as it may, it doesn't mean its sustainable.

Those "100% speed increases" were ISP's willing to lose some money to retain existing customers in select markets, using their other profitable markets to subsidize them.

I'm 100% for more competition in the quasi-monopoly ISP arena, however googles entree into the ISP market was just freshman exuberance. They were flush with lots of shareholder money and had young idealistic founders who figured they could "revolutionize the space" because they were smart and cared.

Over the past few years, google has been shutting down all their naive money losing ventures and getting into the serious business of making money (ie. selling your personal info to the highest bidder).

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