Google Fiber is the best internet service – it’s not even a competition
Living in the majority of civilization where Google Fiber isn’t available, we unfortunate souls have to pretend it doesn’t exist. It’s extremely disheartening sitting down to eat dinner after a long day of work, only to load up Netflix and have a 22-minute episode of Archer take five minutes to load, rebuffer for a minute when you switch the audio stream to stereo, and finally play 10 minutes of low quality video before it normalizes.
Most of us are paying an unacceptable amount of money per month for the wonderful privilege of frustrating internet speeds, while the inhabitants of a select few cities get to live in a world that looks like this:
Certain areas, such as New York City, are notorious for the draconian practices of their service providers, where the residents pay an equal amount — or more — than Google Fiber’s $70 per month for far, far inferior speeds and stability. My $52-per-month plan bestows me with the unheralded power of 30Mbps down and 5Mbps up, a depressing far cry from the above image’s $70.
Aside from speed, though, Google recently explained other advantages of Fiber that can’t be displayed in striking images. While a snapshot of a service’s speed-per-price is a quick way to summarize how frustrated or happy you are on a daily basis, speed isn’t the only thing that goes into providing an acceptable internet service — stability and quality play huge roles as well. As Google explains, Fiber sits atop not only the speed ladder, but the stability and quality ladder, because it doesn’t charge for peering. Peering is the process by which services can hook their networks directly up to Google’s, which reduces congestion; since services don’t have to pay for it, they’re obviously more likely to hop aboard.
Seeing one of these is more exciting than hearing the ice cream truck nearby.
Another way Fiber ups the quality of its service is through colocation. Google works with, for instance, Netflix, and allows the streaming company to keep some of its equipment directly in the Fiber facilities. This means that, when you load up that episode of Archer, the content begins its journey where your internet comes from rather than making a trip to your internet’s facility before moving on to your house. So, since Netflix’s servers are closer toGoogle Fiber customers, Netflix’s content should not only travel to them faster, but at a better quality. Google didn’t exactly invent colocation, but it doesn’t charge Netflix for use of its space or power, thus attracting companies to partake in colocation.
So, yes, we already knew about the blazing speeds at a price far below the competition’s, but Fiber isn’t only about speed, it’s about superb quality — and torturing everyone who can’t access it.
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