The Google Fiber Austin event started a bit late, and opened Marc Ott’s deputy city manager Michael McDonald who apologized that Marc could not be there.   Then with Mayor Lee Leffingwell with a brief speech about how we got Google Fiber, and who did all the work.  Frankly we know who is doing all of the work, Google.  We just need the city to get out of the way, but this was as much as a political event as it was anything else.  Even late comers like Representative Mark Strama was announced mid presentation, and what really I came for was the nuts and bolts.

Nuts and bolts were not to be had yet.  Following the Mayor was Council Woman Laura Morrison with another speech thanking, and with generalities about what this will mean for Austin.  That was followed by a brief video with several Austinites including State Senator Kirk Watson on how they think fiber will be used.

Apologies for the cell phone camera.  Had I had more time and the ability to bring someone else I would have brought my real camera, and maybe even gotten some video with my Canon.

Governor Perry also had a speech, and talked about not just the importance of Austin, but Texas as well.

We also heard from Google’s VP of Google Fiber Milo Medin, and GM of Access Services for Google Fiber Kevin Lo.

Milo talked about his own internet company back in the 90s, and deploying the first cable modems, and how no one believed you could use 5Mbps.  Certainly we have heard similar thoughts about enough memory from Bill Gates, or gaming graphics are good enough from John Carmack.  It seems more is always better.

Kevin Lo talked more about the deployment process, and how you can go to google.com/fiber/austin to start the process of getting involved.  Fiberhoods will be made in Austin, and those fiberhoods with the highest demand are the first to get deployment.

Business service is coming, but details are sketchy at best. They are concentrating on consumer which is not quite what I wanted to hear.  Longhorn Network will be included in the cable TV package.  Pricing has not yet been set, but will be similar to Kansas City.

They will not be partnering with other ISPs and using their existing fiber.  They will only be on their lines which may slow it down initially, but long term is probably the way to go.

Austin is the only city on the menu right now.  It is too early said Lo to think about Round Rock as was asked, or anything about San Antonio as another reporter asked.

Timing remains likely middle of next year, and as the first fiberhoods are chosen by demand public institutions in the area such as libraries and schools.

 

The main speech wrapped up, and then they announced the press would be allowed to talk to the presenters.  I was expecting a tech style Q and A session as you would have with AMD, Nvidia, Intel, etc.  That was not the case.  It was just press running around trying to talk to someone.  It would have been quite helpful for a Q and A session, and perhaps some real discussion, but the tech press like me that have been doing this online for a couple of decades do things quite differently than old school media which is really what we had there.  Newspapers and TV.

We did have some more details, and I tried to get some out of Kevin Lo.  I did not see Milo Medin to talk to.  The one question that came to mind was if Google would wire up the Capitol, that is not exactly bursting at the seams with bandwidth.  I imagine legislators being able to do hi def video discussions with constituents around the state.  Of course they may not have Google Fiber, but it would simplify the process, and if I was a rep I would do a weekly chat session.  He said yes, they had thought about it, but I could not get more details.

Pricing was touched on again, but we already know Google has not disclosed business pricing, and only says we will have similar pricing to Kansas City for consumer usage.

It is unclear if Google has dark fiber already here, and if they have already begun or if they really are just now starting on the rollout as they claim.  They do say they are building a completely new infrastructure  and their press documents seem to confirm that.  The first sign will be surveys around town.  So one would believe if you see a google bunny vehicle in your neighborhood with a survey crew you are probably in luck.

Now for where the fiber will come from they will be burying cable, and with that comes yet more road fun.  They will also be hanging it on utility poles which could be a point of failure if we have another fun Summer of utility pole fires, or a tornado skirts town.  I can say however that with 6 years of Grande fiber to my business we were rarely down, and it went the last half mile or so on the utility poles. The biggest wait for that installation which took a few months was that final line of fiber being run.

One the lines are run they are again estimating that the middle of 2014 will see the first deployment of actual service.  Where is up to you.  You can sign up at https://fiber.google.com/cities/austin/ for now.  I urge you to put 78751 and 78757 as your zip code.

Once the press portion started wear thin I went upstairs for the free tacos and drinks.  This is where they had the sign ups for fiber updates where you put in your email and zip as you do online.  Certainly Google can probably track you better by IP than by zip code.  Of course they are using Google Chromebooks as well.

They also had a swag station set up, or stuff we all get.  I picked up a small shirt for my daughter, and you also get a bunny sticker.  I’ll use the blue Google bag at HEB.

Now this is what you are waiting to see with your internet connection.  This is one of the images from the Google press pics they provided.   Sure, that is not a straight up synchronous connection with the lower upload, but I’ll take those speedtest numbers any day.

So that concludes my summary of the event.  I know we have some answers, and many questions. I’ll work on getting more out of Google soon.  If you are a small business owner like me you may be somewhat disturbed that Google is not too concerned with us.  I think that is a big mistake.  Sure, startup sounds cool and everything out of your house, but why punish those who are past that phase?  Some of us actually grow up and have families, and everyone has to move out.

Keep us posted if you see any Google fiber action in your future fiberhood.  And keep and eye on the Facebook page and group as well.