back to article Charlotte, NC thinks it has won the Google Fiber lottery

Officials in Charlotte, North Carolina believe they will be the next to enjoy Google Fiber. Multiple reports from local media show that city officials plan to meet with the Chocolate Factory later this week on what is expected to be an announcement that the Google broadband service is coming to Charlotte. The company has yet …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Holmes

    Last time I was in SF, Google was providing city-wide wifi

    And it sucked. Unbelievably slow. Not sure if others have had better experiences with it.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Last time I was in SF, Google was providing city-wide wifi

      That reflects badly on Google's commitment, but 1 gbps fiber is certainly not going to suffer the same fate.

      http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1bsn14/

      Google looking to boost Google Fiber speeds up to ridiculous 10Gbps

  2. unitron

    Why can't they do both Charlotte and RTP?

    I want it in as much of NC as possible so that the rest of NC notices and starts asking "Why can't we have that?"

  3. prouton
    Alert

    Why would Google want to deal with the tinfoil hat brigade in San Francisco? There are lots of municipalities around the country that will work *with* them to get it done.

  4. Mark 85

    Hmmm... can we re-think the goodness of Google fibre?

    Since they'll be slurping everything coming down or going up that pipe, let's eliminate them and contract directly with NSA. Quite honestly, I'm not sure I would want Google as my broadband company no matter how fast it was.

    1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

      Re: Hmmm... can we re-think the goodness of Google fibre?

      Name one telecoms, software, hardware or internet company in the USA that wouldn't do the same (or worse) than Google when it comes to sniffing all the traffic on the wire. You're the product, and you pay for the privilege. Welcome to the post-privacy era.

      1. Mark 85

        Re: Hmmm... can we re-think the goodness of Google fibre?

        You're right... I lost my head there for a moment of whimsical wishful thinking.

      2. Robert Helpmann??
        Childcatcher

        Re: Hmmm... can we re-think the goodness of Google fibre?

        Name one telecoms, software, hardware or internet company in the USA that wouldn't do the same...

        Trevor, your statement assumes there ever was an era in which there was true privacy. But don't stop there. Name all of the national governments that don't pull in everything they can. I suspect that you would be wrong on quite a number on your list, while the rest are most likely trying to do so but haven't worked out how or simply don't have the infrastructure to make it worthwhile. As far as businesses are concerned, anywhere you have the ability to make money off this, there will be the temptation to do so. Big Business just wants to follow in Big Brother's footsteps is all.

        1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

          Re: Hmmm... can we re-think the goodness of Google fibre?

          Canada, for one. Canada is part of five eyes - and thus participates in some questionable things - but we have some very strict regulations on what the hoi polloi police can get up to.

          Now, not that the cops haven't tried pushing through some truly egregious crap. $deity knows, they've given it a go, as have some very strident members of the conservative government. That said, the Supreme Court has slapped most of that shit right down, and the stuff that was brewing in the bill stages got at least one prominent cabinet member sent to rural northern Manitoba in order to get his ass out of the spotlight, after the massive backlash his rampaging ineptitude caused.

          I also happen to know that at least three of our telecoms companies don't want to be snooping on traffic. They'd rather actually pay for infrastructure than open the can of worms that comes with having that level of DPI or even "metadata retention" capability. Canadian privacy law is pretty damned strict, and that's a live wire they just flat out don't want to touch.

          Are there forces within Canada that want to strip up of our privacy? Absolutely. Count the Prime Minister and his cabinet chief among them! Hell, the biggest reason they're so eager to fasttrack the TPP is the pat where they can get through privacy-defeating crap as part of an international treaty that they'd never pass as laws.

          But I really do question whether or not it would stand in court. Unlike the US, we don't elect our judges. They aren't bought and paid for. They aren't beholden to anyone, they don't need to seek reelection. And they don't seem to have any problem slapping down the government in whole or in part.

          So I wonder how far this anti-privacy thing will go here. Will we fall like the US has, like the UK is doing? Or will we hold fast and retain some semblance of democracy; a nation where the government belongs to the people and the people have the privacy to organize to ensure it stays that way?

          Time will tell...but I know which side I'll be on.

          1. William Phelps

            In the US, Federal judges are not elected

            US Federal judges are appointed by the President; and, if the Senate confirms them, they get lifetime terms.

          2. Robert Helpmann??
            Childcatcher

            Re: Hmmm... can we re-think the goodness of Google fibre?

            Canada, for one.

            That's a very short list and not exactly a repudiation of my points, alas. Also, you allude to one of the more complicated issues of our time: how data is handled by entities that are outside the borders of a given country. We have seen quite a bit lately how different governments get around privacy laws by setting up mutual spying agreements to monitor each other's citizens in ways that are not legal to do internally. I think that this sort of end run will continue to be one of the biggest challenges to democracies. There will always be tensions over opposing goals in the way our governments work, but it looks to me (and to many, many people if comment sections of my non-random sample of sites is any indication) as though there is a distinct lack of balance when it comes to the issue of security versus privacy.

            Of course, all this is quite apart from the data being gathered and handled by foreign-based countries. A supervillain's monolog couldn't cover all that. I will note, though, that I don't see products being sold as privacy tools flying off the virtual shelves, though there seem to be an increasing number of them available. Perhaps there is hope that better privacy will be available for those who want it, assuming they are even aware by that point that they should.

            1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

              Re: Hmmm... can we re-think the goodness of Google fibre?

              Funny, digital tools marketed as "privacy enhancing" sell well here. And I am constantly having people ask me how to set up _blank_ "so that other people can't access it".

              People WANT privacy. They just don't want COMPLICATED privacy. What they REALLY want is Gmail and Skype, but completely private. Alas...

            2. Robert Helpmann??

              Re: Hmmm... can we re-think the goodness of Google fibre?

              Sorry, that should have been "foreign-based companies."

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Of course they aren't doing San Francisco

    That would be massively expensive, compared to a nice suburb with utility right of ways already defined. Plus nowadays they'd have a fight on their hands from people picketing the Google buses who'd really be up in arms if Google was digging up streets all over town.

    1. phil dude
      Linux

      Re: Of course they aren't doing San Francisco

      They could do Knoxville...after all we have supercomputers....

      But I'm betting the local good-ole-boys are bought and paid for...

      P.

  6. RainbowTrout

    Nope, the Triangle won!

    From a facebook post from ABC11:

    Governor Pat McCrory and city mayors appeared with executives from Google Tuesday to announce that Google is bringing its ultrafast internet and TV service to Carrboro, Cary, Chapel Hill, Durham, Garner, Morrisville, and Raleigh.

    More here ---> http://abc11.tv/1wzkfkX

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