Big Red Car here. Quiet early Saturday morning. No weather reports today because it’s going to be 70F this afternoon and I don’t want to jinx it.
So The Boss was surfing the Internet and came upon something very startling.
Grande Communications is going to start offering 1Gig Internet service in Pemberton Heights, Austin, Texas — where The Boss and I both live — starting in March of 2014. March is next month, ya’ll.
Wow!
Austin has a myriad of Internet servers including AT&T, Comcast, Time Warner and Grande Communications.
The Boss uses Grande and is currently at 65MBS service. When tested on SpeedTest it typically shows 55-65mps download and 3.9mbp upload speed.
Grande is going to be offering 1000mps or 1gigps for an additional $10 expense. Only $10 more.
Why, Big Red Car, why?
Simple, Grasshopper, competition.
Google Fiber blew into town and wowed everyone with the notion that it was going to be offering 1gig service if we would all just hold our breath for a few months.
Lots of fanfare, lots of promise, no reality just yet.
Grande Communications, on the other hand, is signing folks up for a March 2014 hook up date — for 1gigps service!
Today one can have 110mps from Grande, 300mps from AT&T, 50mps from Time Warner — these are actual service levels. Now. Prices are comparable given levels of service. No big surprises.
The power of competition
Well, it goes without saying that competition brings out the best in business and ourselves.
Competition is the ultimate test of potential and reality. When Google Fiber announced that they would provide their Gigabit service —1gigps Internet — in Austin everyone swooned. The Boss swooned. The Big Red Car swooned.
Then little old Grande Communications made it a reality as of next month. Now, the Big Red Car is still skeptical as there is many a slip betwixt the cup and the lip. Still, it seems bloody likely that it is going to happen while Google Fiber has still to announce a schedule. Swoons are schedule starting next month. Book yours now.
In everything you do — test yourself, better the competition. Win.
But, hey, what the Hell do I really know anyway? I’m just a Big Red Car.
Jeff, good read, thanks.
I think even the thought of competition makes a product better too. “if I was attacking myself what would I do”?
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The exercise of sitting back and contemplating how one would attack your competitive stance is a critical element of management and leadership.
Probing for your own vulnerabilities steels you to the prospect of what may actually happen.
BRC
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wow, you’re spoiled with these speeds and feeds. i would kill for that.
everything is big in texas….and fast too.
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It is quite funny because I am not absolutely certain what the increased speeds will actually deliver. Right now I have no fundamental complaints at 65mps.
I wonder what I can do at 1,000mps?
Can you think of any applications?
Don’t get me wrong, I WILL have the 1gigps service. It will shortly become our birthright. But really what do we use it for?
BRC
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true. they’ll think of something.
Who deployed the Grande FTTH (the initial design, permitting, construction, etc)? If the Boss, did he have to sign a multi-year service contract to pay for the fiber to the home?
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As The Boss understands it, he just agrees to a $10 increase on his internet package and away he goes. He has already done this. They are expecting to be in his backyard in early March.
The Boss’s neighborhood though only 640 homes is one of the most sought after neighborhoods and already has Grande fiber.
This is the kind of neighborhood — just West of UT and CBD — which will pay up for fiber.
We shall see. I wonder what one does when the Internet is that damn fast.
BRC
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I agree, competition is what drives markets and we, the consumer win.
I also read this and think about companies who think that an announcement is a product.
Especially in the tech world, people really need to sit back and think about how to seriously work the press smartly.
And–we so so need that bandwidth competition here in NY.
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You have struck a square blow.
In this instance, there is a bit of the David and Google going on. Big bad Google comes to town and announces to tech addicted Austin — Google Fiber, ya’ll. It’s going to be great.
Then little of Grande Communications beats them to the punch and gets its 1gigps service up and running so effectively that they will be in my backyard in less than 3 weeks. Wow!
In the tech world, David has thin little nimble fingers while Google has fat fingers.
That is nimble and agile competition.
And that is what winning looks like.
BRC
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True and agree.
Funny though about PR. In tech it is universally disdained and the agencies themselves are partially to blame. My line that I never had an agency that I loved that I didn’t fire eventually still holds true.
But–working as an advisor to a food company that is tied into health/fitness/celeb endorsement/neighborhoods, PR is about partnerships between the players and deep vertical niches. Incredibly important and strategic and the players are priceless when you find the right one.
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No question
PR is a different undertaking in the tech world because companies can get so close — unfiltered — to their customers there is no necessity to engage with intermediaries.
New world.
BRC
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