Technical rants from a geek.
Help Bring Google Fiber to Omaha, call the Mayor and Nominate The Omaha-Metro with google.
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Bring Google Fiber to Omaha
Posted on February 12th, 2010 9 commentsGoogle has some big news about Fiber Internet. They want to run Internet directly to homes and businesses at 1 Gigabit per second. Check out Google Fiber for Communities page and sign up for it now.
To put this in perspective, let me use a plumbing analogy. Dialup at 56 Kilobits is like a leaky bathroom faucet, it let’s the data trickle through, at 1 drip per second. Cable or DSL at 5 Megabits is like turning the faucet on halfway and getting a stream equal to 42 drips per second. Google’s fiber would be like the spigot that fills your bathtub or waters your lawn at more than 4,200 Drips per second, more like a torrent than a collection of drips. (I guess a faucet -> Hose -> Hoover Dam analogy would have been more impressive, But I like accuracy.)
Fiber is good for your diet and your Internet connection
But why does that matter? Have you ever wanted to get that video off your home computer? Have you ever wanted to connect to your work PC from home, but couldn’t stand how slow it was? Have you tried email more than 1 or 2 pictures at a time? Have you ever, even for a second been sick of waiting for that progress? Have you ever waited for you medical records to be transfered to your specialist while waiting for answers on a life threatening ailment?
Then imagine all the new things this change would bring. Did you like that new blockbuster movie, then head up to Netflix and download it in Hi-Def in just minutes. Have you ever wanted to download a 3d model of that house or that car to get a closer look before wasting your time with that real estate agent or car salesman?
Economic benefits abound too! There will be more jobs making this new infrastructure, not to mention the Information Technology opportunities once the network is in place. Non-technical business will have incredible improvements too. Law enforcement could move mounds of evidence in seconds. Medical and Engineering information that would have taken days can now be put into expert hands in minutes. Imagine having all your information for anything just a moment away. Those are the simple benefits that we can easily see now, after this is rolled out we will find so many new uses for it that we could even imagine now.
So I went to the Google Fiber for Communities page and I enrolled Omaha/La Vista with the answers listed below (and I filled out a bunch of simple questions honestly).
Google asked why my community would be a good place for Google to bring Fiber service to, so I told them:Here in Omaha and it’s suburbs we have a disproportionate amount of IT Businesses like InfoUSA(La Vista/Omaha), Yahoo (La Vista), First Data (Omaha), Cosentry (Bellevue), Google (Council Bluffs) and many startups from individuals to Business incubators like the one University of Nebraska Omaha (UNO) Houses. Combine the businesses with the technically inclined residency; it seems to me that everyone wants better internet service for their personal projects. All this should make for a receptive welcome.
There are several other ISPs here including Cox and Qwest, and Qwest attempted Fiber roll-out with mixed success. With clout like Google’s, you may be able to arrange deals with these local ISPs to help with the ever expensive `last mile` and truly get the most out of the available technology. Since one of your goals is openness having these ISPs already in place provides an opportunity as a backbone provider.
I will post this to my blog before the sun sets on Omaha, calling for the People of my Community to sign up for this as well.
When asked about the quality of my Internet service I said:The quality of my current service is mediocre at best, It seems fast most of the time, but then as soon I have to download something or upload a real file it fails or becomes sluggish. Customer service could be better, for a simple move to a new apartment I was billed extra several times (for one move), and it took no less than 5 calls in total.
Surely you can think of your own reasons that we need this, if for nothing else, sign up to bring more jobs to Omaha. If you cannot think of you own reasons copy and paste mine. But if your can, put your own reasons in, nothing is more convincing than earnest and heartfelt sincerity.
Now hurry up! Sign up Omaha For google fiber now! If you know any political figures in town, get them involved. If done right this can be of enormous Personal, Community and Economic Benefit.
Also see all my recent blog posts about Google Fiber in Omaha.
I used the USGS Faucet dripping calculator to crunch these numbers, and I assumed that 1/2 ml = 1 drip = 60 Kilobit (Minor rounding was involved).6 responses to “Bring Google Fiber to Omaha”
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I also nominated Omaha for Google Fiber. I pretty much used your response w/ a couple additions. But the whole thing is to put more nominations to bring Fiber to Omaha.
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I dealt with the US West ( now Qwest ) fiber overbuild West of 680 in the late 90's. The problem they had then was the cost of the materials. Now the materials are much cheaper, technology is better, and the want is growing fast. The city for the most part is being monopolized by Cox Communications, and they are not providing the customer with what they are paying to receive. Many people do not understand what they are supposed to receive when it comes to speed, but here is a site that they can use to see for themselves (http://www.broadband.gov/). I pay for 7 mps in my household, and rarely see anything above 3 mps. I think it is time that our collective voices are heard, and we can only hope that the ISP's will listen.
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I dealt with the US West ( now Qwest ) fiber overbuild West of 680 in the late 90's. The problem they had then was the cost of the materials. Now the materials are much cheaper, technology is better, and the want is growing fast. The city for the most part is being monopolized by Cox Communications, and they are not providing the customer with what they are paying to receive. Many people do not understand what they are supposed to receive when it comes to speed, but here is a site that they can use to see for themselves (http://www.broadband.gov/). I pay for 7 mps in my household, and rarely see anything above 3 mps. I think it is time that our collective voices are heard, and we can only hope that the ISP's will listen.
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I approve of this shameless plugging of your own agenda (because I like your agenda), and I agree that Google coming to town would break the natural monopoly cox has here.
I cannot think of a better way to improve our ISPs than to encourage healthy competition.
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I've setup a Google Moderator page for people to submit ideas.
http://j.mp/Google_Fiber_In_Omaha
Personally I feel that "Let's do something wacky" ideas are off base. I'd love for people to submit points of need that could be included in the RFI. But, if you need some inspiration for the wacky, here are some of the grand gestures cities are doing.
http://www.fastcompany.com/1579236/these-cities-a...#gigabitOmaha
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I agree with you on this point, and that aiming towards the wacky makes it a little harder for anyone to take us seriously. While I do not think we need to be stuffy in our approach by any means, I do believe we need to steer clear of the slapstick.
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Be Active in the Community – Bring Google to Omaha @ Sqeaky's Dumping Ground March 11th, 2010 at 19:16
[...] Bring Google Fiber to Omaha [...]
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List of Cities Vying for Google’s Gigabit Project | zettaphile.com - BIGGER IS BETTER March 13th, 2010 at 03:56
[...] Bring Google Fiber to Omaha [...]
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[...] Omaha (news) [...]
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AssuredTS.com/toppij and Associated Postings by Joseph Toppi is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.assuredts.com/toppij. © 2009 Joseph Toppi
dukttape March 8th, 2010 at 01:14