Do you like Google Fiber (Austin, Howe: house, neighborhoods, to buy)

[LookingatFL]

To those people who have signed up for Google Fiber:

1. Are you happy with it?

2. Is it up and running all the time or do you lose service?

3. Are you happy you switched from your previous provider? Who was your previous provider?

Thank you for your input. It is now our turn to sign up and I'm wondering what to do. We have TW and as a company I dislike them. However, our service has been dependable.

[Glenn Ross]

I'm my neighborhood's representative on the Oak Hill Association of Neighborhoods(OHAN). At the meeting last night a Google representative showed up and gave us a status report. After the meeting I was talking to someone about Google and another person, not in the meeting chimed in. He said that he has Google at his house in E. Austin and that their customer service is great.

SW Austin has entered the sign up period and I need to sit down and do a comparison between TWC, ATT&T and Google. We have until October 13 to sign up. I have heard that it's more expensive, but I haven't run the numbers yet.

If anyone has any comparisons among the three, I'd be willing to buy Girl Scout cookies from your daughters.

[centralaustinite]

I have it up and running! In general, yes we are happy with it. We had ATT Uverse before. Uverse was very reliable, we have had more outages with GF (I think three this year that lasted for a significant amount of time). Customer service has been reasonably good.

The wireless router only lets you connect 13 devices and quality degrades above 9. With a family of five with phones, laptops, and other devices, we do okay but it is hard when guests arrive, we have to run around and shut things down.

Getting service to our area was a HUGE pain -- the timelines got push out and out and out. The physical installation of GF to our street was a nightmare, the subcontractors they use are idiots (MacTec are the supervisors, try to become friends with them so they will keep the subs in line), took almost 3 months of work on our street (blocking traffic, starting early some days, working past dark on others, doing 3 hours of work on a Sunday on other days), so glad that is behind us. And then we had to wait 6 months until they offered us the chance to get service to our house!! The folks they sent to do the in-house installation are great.

Google's privacy policy (or LACK of privacy policy) is pretty hair-raising. The reason their rates are so low is that they are gathering highly valuable data about everything you do and watch on line. I have a friend who is an inventor and entrepreneur and he won't use GF for that reason, of course, he has patents under development and other patents to protect, most of us don't but still, definitely read their disclosures.

[riaelise]

Originally Posted by centralaustinite

I have it up and running! In general, yes we are happy with it. We had ATT Uverse before. Uverse was very reliable, we have had more outages with GF (I think three this year that lasted for a significant amount of time). Customer service has been reasonably good.

The wireless router only lets you connect 13 devices and quality degrades above 9. With a family of five with phones, laptops, and other devices, we do okay but it is hard when guests arrive, we have to run around and shut things down.

Getting service to our area was a HUGE pain -- the timelines got push out and out and out. The physical installation of GF to our street was a nightmare, the subcontractors they use are idiots (MacTec are the supervisors, try to become friends with them so they will keep the subs in line), took almost 3 months of work on our street (blocking traffic, starting early some days, working past dark on others, doing 3 hours of work on a Sunday on other days), so glad that is behind us. And then we had to wait 6 months until they offered us the chance to get service to our house!! The folks they sent to do the in-house installation are great.

Google's privacy policy (or LACK of privacy policy) is pretty hair-raising. The reason their rates are so low is that they are gathering highly valuable data about everything you do and watch on line. I have a friend who is an inventor and entrepreneur and he won't use GF for that reason, of course, he has patents under development and other patents to protect, most of us don't but still, definitely read their disclosures.

Idiot subcontractors is something that I worry about if and when Google (or any other fiber provider that requires underground installation) comes to our area. There have been numerous documented cases of idiot subcontractors hitting underground gas pipelines as they're excavating to lay fiber lines, causing issues including fatal explosions. Statistically the odds of this happening to us are low I'm sure but I don't want to put my family's fate in their hands. I'm not at ease having gas pipelines near the house period but have no choice because our area of the neighborhood is gas. I'd rather keep the ground intact if at all possible and not have crews hit gas lines, sprinkler pipes, or anything else underground.

[Trainwreck20]

I don't know if we will bother getting it. It has been a while since I checked, but the 'free' (or just low cost now?) version was too slow for our needs, and the 'fast' package costs a lot more for speed that is way more than we need. Currently on U-Verse, which has been very reliable and the one outage we had, they were on top of right away.

The contractors hit a nat. gas pipeline down the street from us, causing a local evacuation (although it did not affect us). Apparently fixed w/o problem. They are starting on our actual street next week, I believe.

[centralaustinite]

Ha! Google fiber is actually down at my house today!! This is the fourth singnificant outage this year. I was planning on live streaming Olympic rowing this morning but no luck.

[LookingatFL]

Well, Centralaustinite, you aren't the only one telling me that they are having outages with Google Fiber. So far, I am hesitant to complete the sign up.

[Trainwreck20]

Originally Posted by LookingatFL

Well, Centralaustinite, you aren't the only one telling me that they are having outages with Google Fiber. So far, I am hesitant to complete the sign up.

I suspect that the installation phase will likely result in lots of issues, at least until they are done in an area (if not the entire city).

[centralaustinite]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

I suspect that the installation phase will likely result in lots of issues, at least until they are done in an area (if not the entire city).

Yes, that is what we tell ourselves. When all the installations are done everywhere, reliability will improve.

If you don't sign up at first it can be months or even years (or ever is what GF will tell you) before you can have the chance to get it again. In our neighborhood not having a google fiber as an option could possibly impact resale, worst case, sign up, keep your current service, wait how ever long until they are ready to install it (double whatever time frame they give you), even have it installed to the house. Then just cancel it. That way your house is "google fiber ready" but you can use another service.

[rangergrit]

I think you will be charged $100 to apply, then cancel. Takes a 1 yr commit to avoid the fee.