Google Fiber for US?!

[Sherifftruman]

They're also paying money for a land lease to all these cities and towns. It's not a huge amount but from what I've read it's a pretty typical rate for these types of things.

[McWallace]

Just an interesting observation - Cary has more responses in this poll than Raleigh even though the population of Raleigh is about 3x the size of Cary.

Not that this in itself means anything, poll data can be pretty elusive. For example it could mean that in general, current non-fiber offerings in the Raleigh area are meeting customers expectations well enough that they aren't sure if they want/need fiber versus a higher level of frustration with current ISP service in Cary, or any number of other influential factors.

I've noticed something in the social media communities I administer: the search for meaningful poll data is pretty much pointless, because the forum itself almost never represents an unbiased segment of society. Forums tend to become influenced by a vocal minority who either have more free time on their hands than others (thus participate more in forum conversations than alternate uses of time, such as work / hobbies/ family time or whatever) or some similar factor.

I think it would be difficult to design a poll to accurately gauge interest in Google fiber, because how interested someone is will ultimately depend on cost of service, privacy concerns (having Google deeply embedded in our lives is a little scary), reliability, customer service, etc.

Surely if people were asked "would you like a much faster Internet connection if it didn't cost you any more money, privacy or other headaches", most would say "sure".

If we follow that with "what if the service were so good, it eliminated all other ISPs such that competition no longer existed and Google's motivation to play nicely and cost effectively disappeared?", then some folks might start scratching their heads.

[PDF]

I'm in Raleigh and will definitely be signing up when the time comes.