[drave]

Originally Posted by Seph Comcast already has multiple high-speed tiers at different price points. Unless I'm missing what you are getting at here. Also, high speed internet is going to be much cheaper in the future.

Yes, I know they have different speeds silly. I meant that they will decide which of those tiers gets access to specific apps such as Netflix, Hulu, etc. They already cornered Netflix earlier this year and said "Hey, you want us to keep offering bandwidth to stream your service to Netflix customers? GIEF US MOAR MONEYS!" And Netflix basically had to cave. The result, as Kalyx said, Netflix raised the subscription prices.

Also, with the demand of social networking (and how widely used it is), more streaming, the infrastructure upgrades that will be required to maintain the current level of service will be massive. That cost will be forwarded to the consumer, just as in any other market. Translated to nerd

The IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Bandwidth Assessment report, which precipitated the launch of the IEEE 802.3 Industry Connections Higher Speed Ethernet Consensus group in August 2012, forecasted that networks will need to support 58 percent compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) on average. Driven by simultaneous increases in users, access methodologies, access rates and services (such as video on demand and social media), the report said, networks would need to support capacity requirements of 1 terabit per second in 2015 and 10 terabit per second by 2020 if current trends continue. These open Industry Connections efforts helped build consensus on the need for an Ethernet solution beyond 100 Gb/s and to launch a "call for interest" within IEEE for a study group to explore development of a 400 Gb/s Ethernet standard.

http://standards.ieee.org/news/2013/..._ethernet.html

1TB/sec ethernet - nuff said.

Also, faith in Google fiber will need to be bundled with faith in your local city willing to lease Google space on their poles. Seeing as how AT&T and Comcast/Time Warner has a stranglehold on the majority of said poles, the Kansas City debacle is just the start of the difficulties they will face for national implementation. Even at that, they will be limited in their services because they are not licensed as a telecommunications provider. Their entire scope of that project will need to change before they can massively launch their fiber on a national level.