New Google Fiber plan: $100 for 2Gbps, plus Wi-Fi 6 router and mesh extender

Lee L

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Considering the really poor implementation of Google Fiber the first time (for example, shallowly buried fiber that were easily severed by accident) and how quickly it was abandoned by Google, what is the incentive for the customer to sign up for this?
Because if you can get it, it is awesome.
 
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MunchMunch

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I moved to Gigcity (Chattanooga) from Houston area. I currently have 1Gb Up and Down for ~$80 a month compared to Comcast 300/20 for $115 (in Houston). I like my upgrade!

Too many rules and protections for good competition in the Internet provider area for people to really get good options in most places.
 
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Not really sure who this is for, TBH.

GFBR has a lot of small biz/org customers like coffee shops, schools, libraries, startups, etc. And maybe larger office buildings too. So 2Gb would provide better avg performance for dozens to thousands of concurrent users. And there are a handful of home power users. But is still surprising they are pursuing 2Gbit.

BTW, in Kansas City, where there are many high speed providers, CCI is $50 for Gigabit. Even AT&T who tends to exploit those who still trust the brand is only $50 for Gigabit (for a year w/caps, includes HBO MAX). Spectrum is $30 for standalone 400M/30M, though Gigabit is $90. Comcast is $35 for 100M, Gigabit is $85. There is one burb (North KC) that offers 'free' muni built Gigabit after $300 install. Google Fiber is still $70 for Gigabit but it is near Gigabit speeds pulling anywhere across country even prime time, which other ISPs may struggle with.


Both Comcast and Spectrum in same market? Have noticed Kansas City often ranks #1 on "Best places to work from home" lists. That kind of competition is probably one reason why.

https://overheardonconferencecalls.com/ ... mote-work/
https://financebuzz.com/best-cities-for-remote-workers
 
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Lord, I pay $70 for 2.78 Mbps (you read that correctly) over ADSL on our farm (Frontier)

We got 1.6 mbps from Frontier for $70 and have had the same speed for over 20 years, so you're doing pretty well ;-) We had serious problems recently with the connection dropping and the technician thought it could be certain websites were making too many demands and causing issues, so they upped us to 2.0 mbps. It's really sad when getting and extra 400kbps really makes a noticeable change in downloads.

What's sadder? A few months ago, I talked to technician in the field and asked if anything faster was available. He knew the road we lived on and said, "I've tried pushing for some new equipment that would give 25Mbps service to 98 houses in your area. The equipment would cost $10k and would repay for itself in two years. Management refused. It's no wonder we are in bankruptcy."
 
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Not really sure who this is for, TBH.

GFBR has a lot of small biz/org customers like coffee shops, schools, libraries, startups, etc. And maybe larger office buildings too. So 2Gb would provide better avg performance for dozens to thousands of concurrent users. And there are a handful of home power users. But is still surprising they are pursuing 2Gbit.

BTW, in Kansas City, where there are many high speed providers, CCI is $50 for Gigabit. Even AT&T who tends to exploit those who still trust the brand is only $50 for Gigabit (for a year w/caps, includes HBO MAX). Spectrum is $30 for standalone 400M/30M, though Gigabit is $90. Comcast is $35 for 100M, Gigabit is $85. There is one burb (North KC) that offers 'free' muni built Gigabit after $300 install. Google Fiber is still $70 for Gigabit but it is near Gigabit speeds pulling anywhere across country even prime time, which other ISPs may struggle with.


Both Comcast and Spectrum in same market? Have noticed Kansas City often ranks #1 on "Best places to work from home" lists. That kind of competition is probably one reason why.

https://overheardonconferencecalls.com/ ... mote-work/
https://financebuzz.com/best-cities-for-remote-workers

Not much overlap... Spectrum (formerly TWC) covers over 2/3 of KC metro and Comcast near 1/3 (some outer burbs). There are apparently some border neighborhoods with overlap and can order either. Supposedly Google Fiber chose KC first partly to pressure two major CableCos (plus ATT and Cox nearby) but mostly because first targeted city/county controlled the utilities.

And yeah, with competition so high, not surprising KC ranks high on WFH city lists. I've worked from home last 8 years nearly full time - no dedicated office desk last 4 years.
 
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waldo22

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That's one of the biggest annoyances for me with ATT. Do you know if this will allow UVerse TV to work through your router too?
Well you still need a DSL modem for regular Uverse, obviously.

(missed the "TV" part the first time) I'd say almost certainly not.

I would venture that it's possible that if you can use a plain ADSL2+/VDSL modem and then have your router do the 802.1x, it may work.
 
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mjeffer

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That's one of the biggest annoyances for me with ATT. Do you know if this will allow UVerse TV to work through your router too?
Well you still need a DSL modem for regular Uverse, obviously.

(missed the "TV" part the first time) I'd say almost certainly not.

I would venture that it's possible that if you can use a plain ADSL2+/VDSL modem and then have your router do the 802.1x, it may work.

I have Fiber with the BW210-700 which has less problems than there Pace modems did with passthrough, even if its still a bit cludgy. Still would prefer to cut it out of the loop, but I was guessing TV wouldn't work that way but couldn't find any info so figured I'd ask. But it does look like there is another trick that can use the modem for authentication and TV but skips the modem for other traffic...might give that a try.
 
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pjcamp

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They should offer infinite Gbps. After all, you can have any speed you want on a network that doesn't exist.

Atlanta became a Google Fiber city some 5 years ago. Today, the only notable thing about Google Fiber is its conspicuous absence, and how it regularly touts the things you could have if you could get it but you can't. In those same 5 years, AT&T managed to run fiber to the entire city. I rather suspect that's where the Google Fiber Store gets there internet service.

I had high hopes for Google Fiber. Even got the t-shirt. Now I realize it was nothing but a contemptible bullshit lie.
 
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^AT&T likely had existing right of ways so much easier to deploy. Looks like GFBR deployed in mostly apt buildings in ATL. So not a lie but not as broad as most hoped for. Given struggles for single family home deployment and ROWs, looks like GFBR will only expand in new markets where the city or utility already deploys fiber or conduit, like W Des Moines and Huntsville. Or use wireless WebPass, though that is essentially apts only too.
 
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evan_s

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Lord, I pay $70 for 2.78 Mbps (you read that correctly) over ADSL on our farm (Frontier)

We got 1.6 mbps from Frontier for $70 and have had the same speed for over 20 years, so you're doing pretty well ;-) We had serious problems recently with the connection dropping and the technician thought it could be certain websites were making too many demands and causing issues, so they upped us to 2.0 mbps. It's really sad when getting and extra 400kbps really makes a noticeable change in downloads.

What's sadder? A few months ago, I talked to technician in the field and asked if anything faster was available. He knew the road we lived on and said, "I've tried pushing for some new equipment that would give 25Mbps service to 98 houses in your area. The equipment would cost $10k and would repay for itself in two years. Management refused. It's no wonder we are in bankruptcy."

That certainly sounds like Frontier and why I'm glad they sold our area to Ziply fiber. It still too early to tell but Ziply at least seems interested in properly maintaining and even upgrading the infrastructure rather than milking it to provide service for as long as it can before it rots completely. They aren't perfect yet and certainly aren't GF but I'm willing to give Ziply some time as they certainly seem to have a lot to do to clean up from Frontier's mess but they do seem to be trying.
 
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I pay $70 for 1 gig ATT fiber but I think if I was on Google fibre (or if ATT offered it) I'd take the offer of 2 gig for $100. Most of the time I would not notice it to be honest but there are times it could come in handy. In any case, it's great they are going to start this where they can but I don't expect to see them doing any new fibre installs too soon as it's just too pricey to do.
 
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Alexstarfire

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Come on google. Nobody is saying I would sign up for google fiber but that gigabit is too slow. They are saying I can't sign up for google fiber because there is no google fiber.

But without a "new" project like this how would the VP in charge of this at Google up his chances to get promoted? What kind of loser just gets a project executed thoroughly and on time? What do you mean failing to execute repeatedly at all levels hurts public trust in the company? That's for "normal" companies, not elite synergy experience facilitators like Google! /s

Do people not remember how much cities and ISPs fought against Google getting access to poles to be able to install their service? Google had/has quite a few cases go to court over it. I'm not sure what you want Google to do if they aren't being allowed access. Do you expect Google to just keep throwing money and time at them if there's no expectation of anything progressing?
 
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kperrier

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They should offer infinite Gbps. After all, you can have any speed you want on a network that doesn't exist.

Atlanta became a Google Fiber city some 5 years ago. Today, the only notable thing about Google Fiber is its conspicuous absence, and how it regularly touts the things you could have if you could get it but you can't. In those same 5 years, AT&T managed to run fiber to the entire city. I rather suspect that's where the Google Fiber Store gets there internet service.

I had high hopes for Google Fiber. Even got the t-shirt. Now I realize it was nothing but a contemptible bullshit lie.
Nashville is the same way. I bet AT&T, Comcast, et. al. is blocking their access to the poles for them to string fiber just like they are here.
 
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My home router is capable 2 gigabit speeds (over wifi)

On paper maybe. Real world no it is not.

I have transferred files at around 200 mbytes/sec.

On wifi? Ok sure.

802.11ad as well as 802.11ax both support higher speeds.

Higher speeds? Sure 1,600 Mbps real world to a single client. No. Maybe 800 Mbps and that is extremely idealized conditions and would require a 3x3 client and 802.11ax on a 80 MHz channel at short range with zero interference from other devices at 256 QAM or higher.
 
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ERIFNOMI

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Hinton

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Would $100 for 2Gbps even be considered a good deal?

Here, I've got a cable subscription that includes all available TV channels (so all sports, HBO Premium which includes HBO Go, all available on demand and watchable from any browser or iOS/Android device, including apps for smart TVs), unlimited landline and 500Mbps (actually speedtest.net says it's about 400) for $50 a month. And that's not considered cheap compared to some other neighbouring countries.

Here, I've got two separate DSL lines that on a good day combined get me 10Mbps down and 1Mbps up. On a normal day one or both isn't working so I frequently end up with 0Mbps down and 0Mbps up, which means I tether my cellphone to our LAN so we can work from home. That drains the phone's battery faster than I can charge it so after a few hours that ceases to be a solution as well.

So yeah, $100 for 2Gbps would be a hell of a deal for the 95% of the population that /can't/ get 500Mbps with unlimited channels and ponies for $50.

Newer phones would charge faster than you can drain it, and besides, newer phones are nice.

For example, my Huawei P30 pro., which I assume is not available in USA, has a 45watt charger. This is not unique though, any new phone will have similar in their topmodels.

I'm getting 1Gb/1Gb for 48usd in a few months btw., no ponies.

The fiber is there, now our community will just have to vote whether we'll accept the offer of all being connected for free this month (we'll vote yes).

Same company also gave us all DOCSIS3.1 for free, for some odd reason. But I am happy with my 330/70 connection for 40USD, and don't need fiber. I'll get it anyway, because I am irrational.
 
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I wonder if Google's 2Gbit decision is partly to push CableCos to upgrade to DOCSIS 4.0. It's 10Gbit on paper, though expected to be 4Gb real world and/or would add more capacity to sustain many more 1Gbit connections per neighborhood. But CableCos seem to be in no rush to upgrade. Meanwhile AT&T claims fiber rollout is now a top priority...

https://www.fiercetelecom.com/telecom/a ... p-priority
 
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Come on google. Nobody is saying I would sign up for google fiber but that gigabit is too slow. They are saying I can't sign up for google fiber because there is no google fiber.

But without a "new" project like this how would the VP in charge of this at Google up his chances to get promoted? What kind of loser just gets a project executed thoroughly and on time? What do you mean failing to execute repeatedly at all levels hurts public trust in the company? That's for "normal" companies, not elite synergy experience facilitators like Google! /s
Google is an advertising company. That is it, end of story. No facilitation, no nothing. Just ads.
 
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I wonder if Google's 2Gbit decision is partly to push CableCos to upgrade to DOCSIS 4.0. It's 10Gbit on paper, though expected to be 4Gb real world and/or would add more capacity to sustain many more 1Gbit connections per neighborhood. But CableCos seem to be in no rush to upgrade. Meanwhile AT&T claims fiber rollout is now a top priority...

https://www.fiercetelecom.com/telecom/a ... p-priority
No it will not. I have gigabit from Comcast. The only difference with the previous 70 megabit is fasterspeed tests. Nothing at all else changed.
 
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I wonder if Google's 2Gbit decision is partly to push CableCos to upgrade to DOCSIS 4.0. It's 10Gbit on paper, though expected to be 4Gb real world and/or would add more capacity to sustain many more 1Gbit connections per neighborhood. But CableCos seem to be in no rush to upgrade. Meanwhile AT&T claims fiber rollout is now a top priority...

https://www.fiercetelecom.com/telecom/a ... p-priority
No it will not. I have gigabit from Comcast. The only difference with the previous 70 megabit is fasterspeed tests. Nothing at all else changed.

What happens when you do a speedtest to a server a thousand miles away? Can 'Change Server' on speedtest.net to another city anywhere. If you get great speeds on a local server but not at long distance, it's a bottleneck along the routes/exchanges on the longhaul. If that's the case, may be why they'll avoid DOCSIS 4 upgrades. But they should keep up with capacity management up to Exchanges anyway.

What makes Google Fiber stand out is they have dedicated longhauls with big pipes to major exchanges, separated from other Google services. I can get the same 940Mbps whether local or 2000 miles away. And fewer hops so lower latency. And to Europe/Asia, can pull 700Mbps on some test servers. GFBR is well engineered end-to-end (user to Exchanges anyway) and with less neighborhood level oversubscribing than other Gigabit ISPs.
 
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sd70mac

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Is Google Fiber even expanding anymore?

Sadly, they have put all plans to expand into new areas on hold. Though I have some hope they will start again eventually. I would sign up immediately if it were available.

Almost. West Des Moines (yes, really) is getting Google Fiber thanks to the city’s open-access conduit network construction project. https://muninetworks.org/content/west-d ... -community

Lincoln, Nebraska did something similar that lead to Allo providing fiber there. https://muninetworks.org/tags/tags/lincoln-ne
 
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I wonder if Google's 2Gbit decision is partly to push CableCos to upgrade to DOCSIS 4.0. It's 10Gbit on paper, though expected to be 4Gb real world and/or would add more capacity to sustain many more 1Gbit connections per neighborhood. But CableCos seem to be in no rush to upgrade. Meanwhile AT&T claims fiber rollout is now a top priority...

https://www.fiercetelecom.com/telecom/a ... p-priority
No it will not. I have gigabit from Comcast. The only difference with the previous 70 megabit is fasterspeed tests. Nothing at all else changed.

What happens when you do a speedtest to a server a thousand miles away? Can 'Change Server' on speedtest.net to another city anywhere. If you get great speeds on a local server but not at long distance, it's a bottleneck along the routes/exchanges on the longhaul. If that's the case, may be why they'll avoid DOCSIS 4 upgrades. But they should keep up with capacity management up to Exchanges anyway.

What makes Google Fiber stand out is they have dedicated longhauls with big pipes to major exchanges, separated from other Google services. I can get the same 940Mbps whether local or 2000 miles away. And fewer hops so lower latency. And to Europe/Asia, can pull 700Mbps on some test servers. GFBR is well engineered end-to-end (user to Exchanges anyway) and with less neighborhood level oversubscribing than other Gigabit ISPs.

This is a common problem on AT&T Gigapower, where many only see 300M-500M even if subscribed to Gigabit.

Would like to see Ars deep dive further into this and pressure ISPs into upgrading backend capacity. What good is a Gigabit on front end if there are bottlenecks to the rest of the Internet. If Ars calls this out, other tech/telcom sites may follow suit and together pressure ISPs to address.
 
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malor

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I wonder if Google's 2Gbit decision is partly to push CableCos to upgrade to DOCSIS 4.0. It's 10Gbit on paper, though expected to be 4Gb real world and/or would add more capacity to sustain many more 1Gbit connections per neighborhood. But CableCos seem to be in no rush to upgrade. Meanwhile AT&T claims fiber rollout is now a top priority...

https://www.fiercetelecom.com/telecom/a ... p-priority
No it will not. I have gigabit from Comcast. The only difference with the previous 70 megabit is fasterspeed tests. Nothing at all else changed.

What happens when you do a speedtest to a server a thousand miles away? Can 'Change Server' on speedtest.net to another city anywhere. If you get great speeds on a local server but not at long distance, it's a bottleneck along the routes/exchanges on the longhaul. If that's the case, may be why they'll avoid DOCSIS 4 upgrades. But they should keep up with capacity management up to Exchanges anyway.

What makes Google Fiber stand out is they have dedicated longhauls with big pipes to major exchanges, separated from other Google services. I can get the same 940Mbps whether local or 2000 miles away. And fewer hops so lower latency. And to Europe/Asia, can pull 700Mbps on some test servers. GFBR is well engineered end-to-end (user to Exchanges anyway) and with less neighborhood level oversubscribing than other Gigabit ISPs.

Throughput is normally based on latency, so if you're claiming to get the same speed locally and 2000 miles away, something's probably not right about how you're measuring. Unless both you and the other end have very unusual TCP stacks with extra-large send- and receive-windows, you should see a marked decrease in throughput at ~60ms latency (and even more at 80, which is what I usually see for cross-country ping tests.)

It'll still be hundreds of megabits, but the results should be quite noticeably slower at that distance.
 
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malor

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sd70mac

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That's one of the biggest annoyances for me with ATT. Do you know if this will allow UVerse TV to work through your router too?
Well you still need a DSL modem for regular Uverse, obviously.

(missed the "TV" part the first time) I'd say almost certainly not.

I would venture that it's possible that if you can use a plain ADSL2+/VDSL modem and then have your router do the 802.1x, it may work.

I have Fiber with the BW210-700 which has less problems than there Pace modems did with passthrough, even if its still a bit cludgy. Still would prefer to cut it out of the loop, but I was guessing TV wouldn't work that way but couldn't find any info so figured I'd ask. But it does look like there is another trick that can use the modem for authentication and TV but skips the modem for other traffic...might give that a try.

While it has been possible to do a certificate-based bypass, or even just using a dumb switch, AT&T has started changing something in markets getting XGS-PON that breaks all known bypasses (although putting a firewall and squid proxy device in front of the gateway should still be technically feasible).

Dumb switch bypass discussion: https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r32872 ... tch-method

Using your own DSL modem discussion (experimental): https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r32853 ... DSL-Uverse

Gateway bypass not working discussion: https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r32839785-
 
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I wonder if Google's 2Gbit decision is partly to push CableCos to upgrade to DOCSIS 4.0. It's 10Gbit on paper, though expected to be 4Gb real world and/or would add more capacity to sustain many more 1Gbit connections per neighborhood. But CableCos seem to be in no rush to upgrade. Meanwhile AT&T claims fiber rollout is now a top priority...

https://www.fiercetelecom.com/telecom/a ... p-priority
No it will not. I have gigabit from Comcast. The only difference with the previous 70 megabit is fasterspeed tests. Nothing at all else changed.

What happens when you do a speedtest to a server a thousand miles away? Can 'Change Server' on speedtest.net to another city anywhere. If you get great speeds on a local server but not at long distance, it's a bottleneck along the routes/exchanges on the longhaul. If that's the case, may be why they'll avoid DOCSIS 4 upgrades. But they should keep up with capacity management up to Exchanges anyway.

What makes Google Fiber stand out is they have dedicated longhauls with big pipes to major exchanges, separated from other Google services. I can get the same 940Mbps whether local or 2000 miles away. And fewer hops so lower latency. And to Europe/Asia, can pull 700Mbps on some test servers. GFBR is well engineered end-to-end (user to Exchanges anyway) and with less neighborhood level oversubscribing than other Gigabit ISPs.

Throughput is normally based on latency, so if you're claiming to get the same speed locally and 2000 miles away, something's probably not right about how you're measuring.

Not a claim, according to speedtest.net (and other test servers). I'm at my Florida place through next month, not at my KC condo so can't post a new test but I've posted long distance Google Fiber tests over the years on Ars. Even a bit better now as longhaul and peering to exchanges have been upgraded over time, more recently get around 940Mbps on any speedtest.net server that can support it. These are of course multi-threaded tests.

Read these pages, see my posted Google Fiber speedtests to various places around US from KC, and London further down on second link...
viewtopic.php?p=29685605#p29685605
viewtopic.php?p=28725757#p28725757

KC to Paris on this page via Google Fiber, was consistently over 700M any time of day...
viewtopic.php?p=31204453#p31204453

I've posted tests to Asia too but can't find them. Pretty sure they were also over 700M.

GFBR internal network doesn't appear to share traffic with other Google services up to the Exchange {IXP) and apparently the peering capacity is plenty enough to sustain around same speed at long distances depending on traffic on other side of exchange to server.
 
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sd70mac

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This strikes me as mostly useless, since home networks are typically limited to gigabit, and WiFi 6 by itself isn't doing gigabit, either.

With a 6E router, they would maybe be selling you something you could use. Otherwise, nearly anyone would have to replace switches and network cards with faster ports to get any use from this at all.

I'm also curious about whether the Ethernet ports on that router do anything past gigabit.....

I wonder if this has something to do with Google’s mysterious 6GHz testing permits at the FCC.
 
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This strikes me as mostly useless, since home networks are typically limited to gigabit, and WiFi 6 by itself isn't doing gigabit, either.

With a 6E router, they would maybe be selling you something you could use. Otherwise, nearly anyone would have to replace switches and network cards with faster ports to get any use from this at all.

I'm also curious about whether the Ethernet ports on that router do anything past gigabit.....

I wonder if this has something to do with Google’s mysterious 6GHz testing permits at the FCC.

2Gbit is overkill for most home consumers but not for small biz and orgs that use GFBR as described further up this page. More capacity for dozens to possibly thousands of users.
 
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mjeffer

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That's one of the biggest annoyances for me with ATT. Do you know if this will allow UVerse TV to work through your router too?
Well you still need a DSL modem for regular Uverse, obviously.

(missed the "TV" part the first time) I'd say almost certainly not.

I would venture that it's possible that if you can use a plain ADSL2+/VDSL modem and then have your router do the 802.1x, it may work.

I have Fiber with the BW210-700 which has less problems than there Pace modems did with passthrough, even if its still a bit cludgy. Still would prefer to cut it out of the loop, but I was guessing TV wouldn't work that way but couldn't find any info so figured I'd ask. But it does look like there is another trick that can use the modem for authentication and TV but skips the modem for other traffic...might give that a try.

While it has been possible to do a certificate-based bypass, or even just using a dumb switch, AT&T has started changing something in markets getting XGS-PON that breaks all known bypasses (although putting a firewall and squid proxy device in front of the gateway should still be technically feasible).

Dumb switch bypass discussion: https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r32872 ... tch-method

Using your own DSL modem discussion (experimental): https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r32853 ... DSL-Uverse

Gateway bypass not working discussion: https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r32839785-

Thanks, apparently from that thread my area is one where they're rolling out XGS-PON right now. So its not really worth me trying. I really wish Google would activate the Fiber they've already laid in my neighborhood...
 
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malor

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This strikes me as mostly useless, since home networks are typically limited to gigabit, and WiFi 6 by itself isn't doing gigabit, either.

With a 6E router, they would maybe be selling you something you could use. Otherwise, nearly anyone would have to replace switches and network cards with faster ports to get any use from this at all.

I'm also curious about whether the Ethernet ports on that router do anything past gigabit.....

I wonder if this has something to do with Google’s mysterious 6GHz testing permits at the FCC.

2Gbit is overkill for most home consumers but not for small biz and orgs that use GFBR as described further up this page. More capacity for dozens to possibly thousands of users.

Sure, if you've got more than about ten bandwidth-heavy devices to serve, going over a gig can be very useful. But they seem to mostly be marketing this to end-users, not businesses, and I suspect it would do just about sweet f-all under almost every circumstance.

Basically: unless you already have a 10g network in your home, this is likely to do almost nothing. And if you do have 10g at home, this 2G service won't work properly with Google's router, because, from other comments, its individual ports are only gigabit. You'd need your own router to see an actual improvement that mattered in any particular way.

Were this 6E, or if it had ports faster than a gigabit, then it might be useful. With the hardware on offer, it's damn near snake oil. The only time it will do any good is when you have multiple machines doing huge downloads simultaneously, and even then only if the servers on the other end can go fast enough.
 
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This strikes me as mostly useless, since home networks are typically limited to gigabit, and WiFi 6 by itself isn't doing gigabit, either.

With a 6E router, they would maybe be selling you something you could use. Otherwise, nearly anyone would have to replace switches and network cards with faster ports to get any use from this at all.

I'm also curious about whether the Ethernet ports on that router do anything past gigabit.....

I wonder if this has something to do with Google’s mysterious 6GHz testing permits at the FCC.

2Gbit is overkill for most home consumers but not for small biz and orgs that use GFBR as described further up this page. More capacity for dozens to possibly thousands of users.

But they seem to mostly be marketing this to end-users, not businesses,

Yeah they'll heavily market 2Gbit to uninformed consumers (and biz who can truly use it as well) as they always have. I've convinced friends who got GFBR to 'keep up with the Joneses' to downgrade to 100M when GFBR used to offer it. The only heavy hitting is video streaming for all of them, which didn't even pressure 100M. Of course they didn't notice when going to 100M. One even went to the 'free' 5M service (only offered in KC, still available to anyone) and was fine with it. The 5M service has the same low latency as Gbit of course and loads web pages quickly and solid enough for HD streaming in a one or even 2 person household if not power users.
 
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What's interesting is that when tech reaches a point of staying way ahead of the curve, many still think they need the latest and greatest and companies will still market to them. Average users don't really need a laptop over $1K anymore if not using CPU intensive apps. Same with phones over $700 at this point. Mid-range is more than good enough for most now, unless wanting certain high end features. My $350 PIxel 4a performs as well as original iPhoneX outside CPU intensive apps, which there aren't many.

Gigabit isn't as widespread but still more than most can utilize. 2G is way over kill outside hard core users and companies but for $100/month, many who can get it will still go for it even if they only have 1Gbit equipment. Especially in this Work From Home age.
 
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