Google Fiber coming to Charlotte?

[InSouthPark]

3 hours ago, kermit said:

Has there been any news / new service in the past six months? I know they were working in Dilworth long ago and their web site still says no service in the hood. The web site also shows that they have increased pricing ($30 more per month for gigabit and tv package, AT&T has held their gigabit pricing steady).

Are they serving any SFH neighborhood other than Highland Creek?

Last week, Google had a neighborhood tent setup along the street on Arbor Way getting people to sign up.  Arbor Way is in Foxcroft.  

Also, AT&T gigabit has increased from $70 to $80. Really disappointed Google jumped their fees $30 for TV bundle already. That was basically my whole saving I was hoping to recoup from ditching Directv. :-(

[kermit]

16 minutes ago, InSouthPark said:

Last week, Google had a neighborhood tent setup along the street on Arbor Way getting people to sign up.  Arbor Way is in Foxcroft.  

Also, AT&T gigabit has increased from $70 to $80. Really disappointed Google jumped their fees $30 for TV bundle already. That was basically my whole saving I was hoping to recoup from ditching Directv. :-(

Thanks! Glad to hear there are some signs of progress.

My mistake about AT&T pricing, I just looked again for my address, sure enough the extra $10 is there.

 

[cjd5050]

I am not expecting a full deployment from Google.  It was posted a couple of weeks ago on Reddit that Google did a massive layoff for the contractors in Atlanta, Nashville, Durham and Charlotte.   Now I don't know how accurate the 90% is but all of the writing on the wall suggests a partial deployment.  Which is sad.

[kermit]

^ yea, I just heard unofficially from a different source that they are halting installation in RDU and (it was assumed but not known for certain, Charlotte). Its a bummer, it would have been a minor ED coup to be a dual-fiber provider city.

Wonder what will happen to their very nicely renovated space in First Ward?

[AuLukey]

Are they serving any SFH neighborhood other than Highland Creek?

Davis Lake

As to the slow down of installs. I had heard a few months ago that other utility companies were giving GF headaches in other markets by blocking their ability to use certain corridors and taking other measures to make it cost prohibitive for GF to run service through. Whether these issues have carried over into our market is anybody's guess.

[Niner National]

The apartments in Seigle Point are now eligible to sign up. Nothing for us townhome owners yet, however.

They were in our neighborhood hooking things up about two weeks ago.

[birky]

At the rate this is going, I expect my neighborhood will see Google Fiber sometime in the early 2200s.

[KJHburg]

Does anyone you know or people on UP have Google fiber? what do they think of it? By the time it is roll out to my neighborhood I might be in my final resting place at Sharon Memorial. 

[sclark]

Apparently my neighborhood (madison park) has a GF rep coming to our HOA meeting in August. I assume it's good news. 

[ES Charlotte]

230 South Tryon's HOA voted yes. Went through the hellacious process of installing the bones throughout the building. It's been installed since late last year and no fiber service yet  

The rollout has been astonishingly abysmal  

[nonillogical]

I just moved to the Cielo building on Park Rd, and we have Google Fiber wired but no service yet as well. 

[AuLukey]

I'm fortunate enough to live in Northeast Charlotte. We moved out of Highland Creek just before service was turned on there. We were very sad. But then a miracle happened and Davis Lake was turned on a few months later.

 

As for my opinion. It's absurdly fast (see my post a few pages back for Speedtest result.) The ping time is unimaginable for a home service.

 

The router portion of the modem is ho-hum after awhile. We replaced the routing portion with an AirPort Time Capsule about six months after getting GF. We kept having to disconnect and reconnect to the WiFi to get Internet after a few months. I'm sure they would've replaced the box, but then we'd lose all of our recordings... the downside of having so many components in one hub.

 

Apparently they are doing closed-invite beta testing on 4K boxes, so you may actually benefit from the wait in the long run.

 

Also, HBO is $15/month extra, which kinda sucks; I think it was $10 with TWC, but I don't remember anymore.

 

Overall, I hope all of Charlotte gets rolled out soon. It's quite the selling point.

 

 

 

 

[birky]

Any updates on the roll out of either Google or AT&T? Feels like there's been near complete silence, and I can't find info on which areas will see service soon.

[sclark]

I've heard occasional mentions of progress around the south charlotte / uptown area with Google Fiber. AT&T Fiber seems to be continuing a quiet rollout. It recently became available in my neighborhood, Madison Park. 

[kermit]

At some point this group is going to need to move through the stages of grief and accept that Google Fiber is dead in Charlotte. The radio silence here is instructive, if anyone would have heard of their continued expansion in Charlotte it would have been us. Based on what I have heard from Google's contractors  the best we can hope for from google is perhaps a few more large multifamily installations (that were already started or contracted) and (hopefully) a sale of assets to a different provider (Verizon?) which might restart the neighborhood buildouts.

AT&T is still rolling their fiber product out. They are really bad at notifying neighborhoods about its availability however so it may be worth a phone call to see if you can get it. I was checking their availbility website daily (it always said not availble)  but a chat with my neighbor's installer proved that to be incorrect. Unfortunately now that google is dead, AT&T's fiber pricing is going up.

Edited December 14, 2017 by kermit

[SgtCampsalot]

1 hour ago, kermit said:

At some point this group is going to need to move through the stages of grief and accept that Google Fiber is dead in Charlotte. The radio silence here is instructive, if anyone would have heard of their continued expansion in Charlotte it would have been us. Based on what I have heard from Google's contractors  the best we can hope for from google is perhaps a few more large multifamily installations (that were already started or contracted) and (hopefully) a sale of assets to a different provider (Verizon?) which might restart the neighborhood buildouts.

AT&T is still rolling their fiber product out. They are really bad at notifying neighborhoods about its availability however so it may be worth a phone call to see if you can get it. I was checking their availbility website daily (it always said not availble)  but a chat with my neighbor's installer proved that to be incorrect. Unfortunately now that google is dead, AT&T's fiber pricing is going up.

This is correct.
Anyone who has read this Creative Loafing article about GF (and has also worked at badly managed companies before), can pretty easily tell that GF  is just biding time.

At least they renovated the Dixie's Tavern building!

Edited December 14, 2017 by SgtCampsalot

[urbanlover568]

12 hours ago, kermit said:

At some point this group is going to need to move through the stages of grief and accept that Google Fiber is dead in Charlotte. The radio silence here is instructive, if anyone would have heard of their continued expansion in Charlotte it would have been us. Based on what I have heard from Google's contractors  the best we can hope for from google is perhaps a few more large multifamily installations (that were already started or contracted) and (hopefully) a sale of assets to a different provider (Verizon?) which might restart the neighborhood buildouts.

AT&T is still rolling their fiber product out. They are really bad at notifying neighborhoods about its availability however so it may be worth a phone call to see if you can get it. I was checking their availbility website daily (it always said not availble)  but a chat with my neighbor's installer proved that to be incorrect. Unfortunately now that google is dead, AT&T's fiber pricing is going up.

This is false. I would advise you to contact the Google Fiber office in Charlotte or give them a call and they would be able to assist you with your concerns. i know for a fact that Google Fiber is still expanding and will continue to expand.  I don't know where the contractor you spoke to got his/her information from, but it's wrong. Here is a public apartment map where Google Fiber is installed. https://fiber.google.com/cities/charlotte/apartments/neighborhoods/?neighborhood=all . This map will only grow as time goes on. 

[kermit]

37 minutes ago, mpretori said:

 i know for a fact that Google Fiber is still expanding and will continue to expand....

OK, I would love to be wrong about this. But have any of us heard about a neighborhood where they have started service in over the past year? Where will the next rollouts be?

My source is pretty reliable and the evidence (the total lack of activity from google) matches up. They started wiring my neighborhood more than 2 years ago but they never started service.  Admittedly this is all just anecdote, but I need a little more than "the map will only grow" before I can think that everything is still kosher. If they are still moving forward then whats the holdup?

 

Edited December 15, 2017 by kermit

[urbanlover568]

39 minutes ago, kermit said:

OK, I would love to be wrong about this. But have any of us heard about a neighborhood where they have started service in over the past year? Where will the next rollouts be?

My source is pretty reliable and the evidence (the total lack of activity from google) matches up. They started wiring my neighborhood more than 2 years ago but they never started service.  Admittedly this is all just anecdote, but I need a little more than "the map will only grow" before I can think that everything is still kosher. If they are still moving forward then whats the holdup?

 

If your neighborhood is about to be activated, you will know about it far in advance.  Just be patient. They are still expanding .  If you have any questions like if your neighborhood is on the roll-out list, PM me and I will be more than happy to get you in contact with someone. 

Edited December 15, 2017 by mpretori

[navigator319]

Google Fiber went live in the last 2 weeks in TradeMark building and we went live with AT&T about two months ago.  We now have three choices!  Awesome.  I personally have not decided what to do and continue for the moment to keep Spectrum internet for $72/month.  I long ago cut out cable for just Hulu and OTA.

Edited December 15, 2017 by navigator319
typo

[Scribe]

24 minutes ago, navigator319 said:

I personally have not decided what to do and continue for the moment to keep Spectrum internet for $72/month.

That should be pretty easy. Spectrum can barely reach 300 Mbps Fiber is 1Gbps and Fiber is $2 cheaper per month.

[Matthew.Brendan]

ATT wired up our small neighborhood earlier in the year. Signed up as soon as I could and now have 300/300 service for the same $60/month that I used to pay TWC for 100/5. Very happy. Full gig is only $80/month. 

[navigator319]

On 12/15/2017 at 11:17 AM, Scribe said:

That should be pretty easy. Spectrum can barely reach 300 Mbps Fiber is 1Gbps and Fiber is $2 cheaper per month.

I'm really torn, it is a bit of a hassle to switch not to mention then connecting all the things in the house to the new wifi... things like Nests on the ceiling,  wifi scales, thermostats, stove, dishwasher, Alexas, TV, Xbox.  Yea I have a pretty wired condo lol

For Spectrum like I mentioned I pay $72 including taxes and recent speed tests show I'm regularly getting 185 down and 23 up.  At this speed I don't feel any performance issues.

Google:

100/100 =  $50 + tax 

1000/1000 = $70+ tax 

AT&T :

50/50  = $40+tax

300/300 = $60+tax

1000/1000 = $80 +tax

They also give a $100 Visa card to sign up 

The negatives here are this is 12 month contract and the price goes up $10-$20 after, 1TB data cap 

----

After going through all this online again with them both I don't think I see a big enough $$ difference to deal with the process when I don't have a problem I'm trying to solve 

 

 

[elrodvt]

1 hour ago, navigator319 said:

I'm really torn, it is a bit of a hassle to switch not to mention then connecting all the things in the house to the new wifi... things like Nests on the ceiling,  wifi scales, thermostats, stove, dishwasher, Alexas, TV, Xbox.  Yea I have a pretty wired condo lol

For Spectrum like I mentioned I pay $72 including taxes and recent speed tests show I'm regularly getting 185 down and 23 up.  At this speed I don't feel any performance issues.

Google:

100/100 =  $50 + tax 

1000/1000 = $70+ tax 

AT&T :

50/50  = $40+tax

300/300 = $60+tax

1000/1000 = $80 +tax

They also give a $100 Visa card to sign up 

The negatives here are this is 12 month contract and the price goes up $10-$20 after, 1TB data cap 

----

After going through all this online again with them both I don't think I see a big enough $$ difference to deal with the process when I don't have a problem I'm trying to solve 

 

 

Sounds like an hours work to me.  if everyone thinks this way , and I don't blame you, we'll never drive competition.  Personally I would pay 10-15% more just to put it to Spectrum after all the years of them milking me.

[mad_park]

On 12/22/2017 at 7:49 AM, navigator319 said:

I'm really torn, it is a bit of a hassle to switch not to mention then connecting all the things in the house to the new wifi... things like Nests on the ceiling,  wifi scales, thermostats, stove, dishwasher, Alexas, TV, Xbox.  Yea I have a pretty wired condo lol

 

 

Just name it the same as your existing wifi - and use the same password....everything will reconnect. Just did this when I moved and switched from TWC to ATT Fiber.