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America desperately needs fiber internet, and the tech giants won't save us
From https://www.recode.net/2019/1/10/18175869/susan-crawford-fiber-book-internet-access-comcast-verizon-google-peter-kafka-media-podcast
(Audio and transcript at link)
America desperately needs fiber internet, and the tech giants won’t save us
Harvard’s Susan Crawford explains why we shouldn’t expect Google to fix slow internet speeds in the US.
By Eric Johnson
Updated Jan 10, 2019, 10:36am EST
On the latest episode of Recode Media with Peter Kafka, Recode’s Peter Kafka spoke with Harvard Law School professor Susan Crawford about her new book, Fiber: The Coming Tech Revolution—And Why America Might Miss It.
On the podcast, Crawford explained why nationwide access to high-speed fiber internet — already standard in parts of Asia and Europe — is important for everything from the future of work to the successful deployment of 5G wireless networks. She also talked about why Google’s ambitious attempt to compete with the telecom giants, Google Fiber, is all but dead.
“They’re like Verizon, which did exactly the same thing, backed off from installing fiber,” Crawford said. “Their shareholders are impatient with the long-term capital needs involved in making sure that there’s great last-mile access in America.”
“Nobody builds a bridge assuming that they’re gonna make 20 percent a year on that investment,” she added. “These are long-term investments that pay off at a rate of, let’s say, 5 or 6 percent until the sun explodes. They’re great investments, but you would have to have a different profile as a company to be interested in that. And that’s not Google’s business.”
Harvard’s Susan Crawford explains why we shouldn’t expect Google to fix slow internet speeds in the US.
By Eric Johnson
Updated Jan 10, 2019, 10:36am EST
On the latest episode of Recode Media with Peter Kafka, Recode’s Peter Kafka spoke with Harvard Law School professor Susan Crawford about her new book, Fiber: The Coming Tech Revolution—And Why America Might Miss It.
On the podcast, Crawford explained why nationwide access to high-speed fiber internet — already standard in parts of Asia and Europe — is important for everything from the future of work to the successful deployment of 5G wireless networks. She also talked about why Google’s ambitious attempt to compete with the telecom giants, Google Fiber, is all but dead.
“They’re like Verizon, which did exactly the same thing, backed off from installing fiber,” Crawford said. “Their shareholders are impatient with the long-term capital needs involved in making sure that there’s great last-mile access in America.”
“Nobody builds a bridge assuming that they’re gonna make 20 percent a year on that investment,” she added. “These are long-term investments that pay off at a rate of, let’s say, 5 or 6 percent until the sun explodes. They’re great investments, but you would have to have a different profile as a company to be interested in that. And that’s not Google’s business.”
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