The death star is dealt a crushing blow:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/08/att-loses-lawsuit-in-which-it-tried-to-thwart-google-fiber-construction/

The death star is dealt a crushing blow:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/08/att-loses-lawsuit-in-which-it-tried-to-thwart-google-fiber-construction/

Umm, what am I missing? Didn't Google already give up on fiber? I don't think Google abandoned most of their efforts because of this issue. I think they set this on the back burner until wireless gets more efficient and affordable. My opinion of Google is that they don't want to do the resource intensive work required to bring fiber across the U.S. The profit margins are not that great.

Umm, what am I missing? Didn't Google already give up on fiber?

Not according to that link, and not according to Google.

https://fiber.googleblog.com/

Not according to that link, and not according to Google.

https://fiber.googleblog.com/

Ok, they significantly slowed down existing projects and "paused" upcoming ones. They have webpass now which is expanding, but this is aimed at apartment buildings in larger cities. I'm going to stick to my claim that for the most part they put a large scale deployment of high speed internet on the back burner until technology advances.

I hate to be the debbie downer for something I would jump on immediately if made available in Oklahoma City.

For the people who keep insisting Google Fiber is dead:

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/10/google-fiber-is-now-in-louisville-thanks-to-new-fiber-deployment-strategy/

All hail the Zombie Google Fiber!

https://fiber.google.com/about/

OKC is currently considered a "potential" city.

if you click on OKC on the link, you can request updates for your specific address. Couldn't hurt!!

Those are some great rates and speeds. Hurricane Electric (HE) is in talks to bring a connection to 7725 W Reno (former ATT Lucent plant). This address is the largest fiber cross connect in the state of OK. HE will sell as low as $.25 cents a Meg, but you will have to figure out how to get the connection, as they won't build backbone out of that address. It will be a game changer for large companies in the area though if they do end up connecting there.

Also OEC is ramping up plans for fibre across Oklahoma. I welcome some competition.

Google Fiber, OEC, I don't care who does it, when you fiber up Mustang, consider this post my order.

Also OEC is ramping up plans for fibre across Oklahoma. I welcome some competition.

i received a survery a few months ago regarding this... has oec decided to move forward? once service is rolled out to my area, i won't be able to drop cox fast enough.

i received a survery a few months ago regarding this... has oec decided to move forward? once service is rolled out to my area, i won't be able to drop cox fast enough.

I know they just hired a ton of new people to start expanding operations so I am assuming this is going forward.

FighttheGoodFight and Pete, didn't have any idea about OEC. Man, I would love to see them scale out and change the game!!! How great would that be.

This is interesting..
https://fiber.googleblog.com/2018/07/fcc-supports-otmr-faster-and-fairer.html

One Touch Make Ready - It looks like AT&T, Comcast and others (not sure about Cox) are fighting this hard.

^

This must be part of Google's push to deliver (semi) wireless high-speed Internet service.

Google has been fighting the OTMR for the last two years, most notably in Tennessee and Kentucky, where ATT and the incumbent providers fought very hard against the concept. This applies primarily to Google FIber's ability to string fiber along utility poles and then directly to houses. Google Fiber was getting ready to pursue the policy in OKC just before they pulled out of the city. OGE had previously made commitments to allow GF access to the poles, but those discussions died, likely with back door interference from ATT and Cox. If the FCC succeeds in making it a national policy, it would make it more likely GF will return to OKC, though I wouldn't count on it for other reasons.

The wireless service will mostly be effectuated through wireless systems on top of tall buildings beaming the signal to the users. It's a solution that can only really work in high density cities (e.g., Chicago, SF, NYC), so OKC will likely not see this solution. There are other options being explored for neighborhood level wireless solution.

They lightly touch the OKC metro, but OEC is going to offer residential phone and internet service to its residential and business customers soon. "OEC Fiber" as they call it, are in the process of building out the network now. I think it will be interesting how Cox and ATT react if they start penetrating customers in Norman. Wonder if other electric companies will follow? Residential phone is a dying product, but the internet play could be interesting.

Looks like just south side though...

https://apple.news/AXvqoV6--SwCXSRBhwe0TZQ

The article calling this a setback seems a bit optimistic about the future of Google Fiber. In 2016 they basically decided to abandon about half the cities they were setting up fiber networks, the dividing line seems to be where significant amount of the construction was already complete and have not added service to a new city in two and a half years.

I think Google seriously underestimated the ability to "mine" more bandwidth from traditional copper networks, and saw fiber as the inevitable end for high speed connections - heck, so did a lot of people. I'm betting Louisville isn't the first city to see Google pull out their fiber service.

I think Google seriously underestimated the ability to "mine" more bandwidth from traditional copper networks, and saw fiber as the inevitable end for high speed connections - heck, so did a lot of people. I'm betting Louisville isn't the first city to see Google pull out their fiber service.

Cable companies being nowhere near the max of coax's capacity was well known before Google announced this project, if anything cable companies were dragging their feet in deploying technology manufactures had been hyping while the latest iterations of docsis equipment were in development, most consumers level plans could only get internet services dedicating one of the hundreds of strands to internet even five years ago (which even just that was past what Telcos could keep up with so in many regions were not even competing on the high end of internet service). Plus the last couple versions were less a major breakthrough and more revisions of the industry standards upping the limit from bundling a few of the hundreds of strands to act like one internet connection to optionally utilizing many of them, though they did have improvements in what could be done per strand as well. Probably the next major change for home users will be not sending all the tv signals you are not watching all the time, thus freeing up most of the strands to be used for other traffic either way.

Probably the next major change for home users will be not sending all the tv signals you are not watching all the time, thus freeing up most of the strands to be used for other traffic either way.

That's called SDV, Switched Digital Video, and has been used for a number of years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switched_video

The problem is some companies don't use it effectively. While the obvious thing to do would be to put lesser-watched channels onto this program, cable companies try to do it in a way to maximize profits (of course). Do 20 HBOs, Cinemaxes, and Showtimes need to be broadcast all the time? Of course not, plenty of people don't even subscribe to them! Those are a good candidate for SDV. Do all the music choice channels needs to be broadcast at the same time? Again, no, good candidate for SDV.

When Cox started using it in OKC, some pretty commonly-watched channels were SDV. Now they don't make the list of which channels are and aren't SDV available to the public, but I doubt it's changed. Any TiVo owner who is forced to used a Tuning Adapter could easily tell you which channels are and aren't though.

The next major change for home users will probably be IPTV, but that really depends. With cord cutting rising almost as fast as cable fees, it might be ATSC 3.0.

That's called SDV, Switched Digital Video, and has been used for a number of years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switched_video

The problem is some companies don't use it effectively. While the obvious thing to do would be to put lesser-watched channels onto this program, cable companies try to do it in a way to maximize profits (of course). Do 20 HBOs, Cinemaxes, and Showtimes need to be broadcast all the time? Of course not, plenty of people don't even subscribe to them! Those are a good candidate for SDV. Do all the music choice channels needs to be broadcast at the same time? Again, no, good candidate for SDV.

When Cox started using it in OKC, some pretty commonly-watched channels were SDV. Now they don't make the list of which channels are and aren't SDV available to the public, but I doubt it's changed. Any TiVo owner who is forced to used a Tuning Adapter could easily tell you which channels are and aren't though.

The next major change for home users will probably be IPTV, but that really depends. With cord cutting rising almost as fast as cable fees, it might be ATSC 3.0.

God I hate that tuning adapter with a burning passion. It's bigger than the TiVo and I have to reset the power on it at least once every few days. Well, did, anyway. I dumped all of Cox's services last week and moved to gigabit AT&T Fiber, Sling, and OTA TV. Very pleased with the switch so far.

God I hate that tuning adapter with a burning passion. It's bigger than the TiVo and I have to reset the power on it at least once every few days. Well, did, anyway. I dumped all of Cox's services last week and moved to gigabit AT&T Fiber, Sling, and OTA TV. Very pleased with the switch so far.

Yeah, I have that stupid tuner adapter (and have to pay them for it!) with my TiVo and it's a royal pain.

I wish I could switch to AT&T but for some odd reason they are in the neighborhood all around me but not my street. I suspect it's due to the fact that my cul-de-sac has burried utitlies, which is probably worth it.

Looks likhttps://gizmodo.com/when-google-fiber-abandons-your-city-as-a-failed-experi-1833244198e

It was a good thing Google never started their fiber program in OKC. Article about Louisville and the mess that was left.

There’s a glob of stringy, black rubber spilling out of the street at the corner of Speed and Fernwood in Louisville’s Highlands neighborhood. A block away on Rosedale, the same spongy substance that covers most of Google Fiber’s buried lines in the city snakes in and out of the asphalt. ...

I am really starting to dislike google even before this fiasco happened and I’m contemplating moving away from Gmail. I am have been starting to use Apple maps more and more though google maps is still superior.

Before the whole "Google is teh debbil" rhetoric starts, I would like to point out Louisville was aware that Google would be testing a new method, was aware that this method involved the cable being a mere two inches underground, and said yes. Not interested in playing "blame the victim" either, but the fact remains that nobody in the equation said "hey wait a minute, two inches? I can dig that with my shoe, do it right!". Was Google trying to go a cheap route? Yes, of course. Did Louisville approve it? Yes, of course.

But let's be honest, it indeed was a good thing OKC was put on pause, because OKC would have been just as quick to be experimented upon.

Looks likhttps://gizmodo.com/when-google-fiber-abandons-your-city-as-a-failed-experi-1833244198e

It was a good thing Google never started their fiber program in OKC. Article about Louisville and the mess that was left.

There’s a glob of stringy, black rubber spilling out of the street at the corner of Speed and Fernwood in Louisville’s Highlands neighborhood. A block away on Rosedale, the same spongy substance that covers most of Google Fiber’s buried lines in the city snakes in and out of the asphalt. ...

For what it's worth, the Louisville network was built out in a way that wasn't used in any other Fiber city (with the exception of a few experiments in San Antonio and Nashville). Google decided to use shallow trenching techniques - specifically a process called "Nanotrenching" - to deploy their network as fast as possible. Nanotrenching involves cutting a 1" wide, 2" deep trench in a city street, laying the fiber directly in the shallow cut (without conduit), then backfilling the trench with a rubbery epoxy sealant. While this deployment technique isn't new, it's not terribly widespread, and Google's implementation was less than stellar - the sealant they chose did a poor job of bonding to the walls of the trench, and the trench wasn't deep enough for the fiber lines to escape damage from street resurfacing, among other things. Google gambled with this method to try and reduce the cost of deploying their network, since they found that traditional deployments in other cities had been absurdly expensive. When Google was planning to come to OKC - before they announced the "pause", they were still using the same reliable trenching methods they had used in other cities, so it's unlikely we would have seen Google deploy that technique widely for their physical plant here in OKC had the pause not happened.

^

Great post.

Thanks for the info!

Great info "b". Good to know Lville was an outlier.

Before the whole "Google is teh debbil" rhetoric starts, I would like to point out Louisville was aware that Google would be testing a new method, was aware that this method involved the cable being a mere two inches underground, and said yes. Not interested in playing "blame the victim" either, but the fact remains that nobody in the equation said "hey wait a minute, two inches? I can dig that with my shoe, do it right!". Was Google trying to go a cheap route? Yes, of course. Did Louisville approve it? Yes, of course.

But let's be honest, it indeed was a good thing OKC was put on pause, because OKC would have been just as quick to be experimented upon.

The rhetoric is to blame Cox and Comcast. Which they had their part in the google fiber failure, but its pretty dang expensive building out a whole new fiber network. They have that first mover advantage. Hopefully improvements in wireless technology provides more competition. It doesn't need to be a gig either. Most people don't need a gig.

...Most people don't need a gig.

Can confirm. I'm a huge tech nerd - constantly streaming, browsing, gaming, uploading, downloading, sideloading... wait. There's no sideloading. You get it. I constantly use the internet and I want it to be faster.

That said... I got Gigabit over 2 years ago and truth be told... I couldn't tell you if I was using Cox's 150 mbps or Gigabit 99.9% of the time. The only time you know you're using Gigabit is when you go to SpeedTest.net and it get a high number.

Downloads on Xbox Live, especially lately, seem to max at ~100 mbps, but have often crawled along at 10-20mbps. Cool. In fact, I don't think I've ever achieved higher than about ~250 mbps in any in real world situation. At 250 mbps, one could stream 4K Netflix to 10 devices at once.

Can confirm. I'm a huge tech nerd - constantly streaming, browsing, gaming, uploading, downloading, sideloading... wait. There's no sideloading. You get it. I constantly use the internet and I want it to be faster.

That said... I got Gigabit over 2 years ago and truth be told... I couldn't tell you if I was using Cox's 150 mbps or Gigabit 99.9% of the time. The only time you know you're using Gigabit is when you go to SpeedTest.net and it get a high number.

Downloads on Xbox Live, especially lately, seem to max at ~100 mbps, but have often crawled along at 10-20mbps. Cool. In fact, I don't think I've ever achieved higher than about ~250 mbps in any in real world situation. At 250 mbps, one could stream 4K Netflix to 10 devices at once.

Yeah I just wished we had Verizon FiOS at 300/300 for $60 a month. Now granted I'm guessing Verizon's footprint is centralized on the East Coast due to density considerations but mainly I just wish Cox would stop hoarding upload speed like it's the last cup of water in the Sahara.

Can confirm. I'm a huge tech nerd - constantly streaming, browsing, gaming, uploading, downloading, sideloading... wait. There's no sideloading. You get it. I constantly use the internet and I want it to be faster.

That said... I got Gigabit over 2 years ago and truth be told... I couldn't tell you if I was using Cox's 150 mbps or Gigabit 99.9% of the time. The only time you know you're using Gigabit is when you go to SpeedTest.net and it get a high number.

Downloads on Xbox Live, especially lately, seem to max at ~100 mbps, but have often crawled along at 10-20mbps. Cool. In fact, I don't think I've ever achieved higher than about ~250 mbps in any in real world situation. At 250 mbps, one could stream 4K Netflix to 10 devices at once.

agreed... the only time i have seen over 250 mbps with gigabit, is when my Drobo syncs with my offsite Drobo (also on a gigabit line and someone elses house) and it's syncing occurs usually around 300-350 mbps... which is really cool to watch actually. but other than that, i haven't seen anything above that, but i do notice when i have a bunch of people over doing a bunch of things, we don't get the jam i sometimes saw with 150mbps max..

i do notice when i have a bunch of people over doing a bunch of things, we don't get the jam i sometimes saw with 150mbps max..

That's the funny thing with the "no one needs a gig" people. They're technically (pun intended) correct, no 'one' needs a gig. Unfortunately, they're unable to see that other people (that's plural) use the internet differently from them and would deny them that access.

Yeah I just wished we had Verizon FiOS at 300/300 for $60 a month. Now granted I'm guessing Verizon's footprint is centralized on the East Coast due to density considerations but mainly I just wish Cox would stop hoarding upload speed like it's the last cup of water in the Sahara.

Cox doesn't "horde" upload speed, their network is in use in the same way if the traffic is up or down and most people have no need for large amounts of up traffic. Cox will sell you symmetrical data, but it's going to cost you because the bandwidth is almost doubled over asymmetrical.

Cable company networks like Cox are not simply coaxial cable, they are DOCSIS over hybrid fiber-coax with fiber to the node or pedestal. Older telephone networks can't compete with it so AT&T has U-Verse which is fiber to the node and uses two paired phone lines on the last mile to the home. Verizon went one further with FIOS which is a fiber to the home network, but was horribly expensive and they largely have had no expansion of that network in years.

Verizon's wire side footprint has nothing to do with density. Bell Telephone was broken up in the 1980s into seven "Baby Bells" and Verizon is the successor company to the merger of two of the Baby Bells, NYNEX and Atlantic Bell, whose states are located on the east coast. The "new" AT&T is the successor company to the merger of four Baby Bells, Southwestern Bell, Pacific Bell, Bell South and Ameritech. The last Baby Bell, US West is now CenturyLink. Some of the footprint lines are muddy from Verizon, AT&T and CenturyLink buying overbuilders like GTE and MCIWorldcom (Verizon) and Level 3 (CenturyLink).

IPTV is the future, and I mean near future. Not just streaming services, but for standard cable company channel offerings. 5G may well solve the last mile cost problem for AT&T/Verizon and overbuilders like Google.

Hopefully there will be more competition in the near future.

I am really starting to dislike google even before this fiasco happened and I’m contemplating moving away from Gmail. I am have been starting to use Apple maps more and more though google maps is still superior.

If you haven't already switched: http://start.duckduckgo.com I started using it full time about a year ago, and I like it more than Google the vast majority of the time.

If you haven't already switched: http://start.duckduckgo.com I started using it full time about a year ago, and I like it more than Google the vast majority of the time.

Yup. Firefox browser, Duck Duck Go search engine. Google as a company exploits your data in whatever ways they can. Like Facebook, they just have little concern for their user's privacy, or the larger society, beyond their profits. There are alternatives that are usually not perfect, but much better.

Speaking of exploitation, google was just fined 1.7 million in the EU for using monopoly and even gang land techniques on their ad platform.

Wait...no. BILLION
crazy how numbers translate in the tech business. Eu lawmakers sited tha googles profits for 2018 were over 31 billion, so their assessment was fair.

Cox doesn't "horde" upload speed, their network is in use in the same way if the traffic is up or down and most people have no need for large amounts of up traffic. Cox will sell you symmetrical data, but it's going to cost you because the bandwidth is almost doubled over asymmetrical.

Cable company networks like Cox are not simply coaxial cable, they are DOCSIS over hybrid fiber-coax with fiber to the node or pedestal. Older telephone networks can't compete with it so AT&T has U-Verse which is fiber to the node and uses two paired phone lines on the last mile to the home. Verizon went one further with FIOS which is a fiber to the home network, but was horribly expensive and they largely have had no expansion of that network in years.

Verizon's wire side footprint has nothing to do with density. Bell Telephone was broken up in the 1980s into seven "Baby Bells" and Verizon is the successor company to the merger of two of the Baby Bells, NYNEX and Atlantic Bell, whose states are located on the east coast. The "new" AT&T is the successor company to the merger of four Baby Bells, Southwestern Bell, Pacific Bell, Bell South and Ameritech. The last Baby Bell, US West is now CenturyLink. Some of the footprint lines are muddy from Verizon, AT&T and CenturyLink buying overbuilders like GTE and MCIWorldcom (Verizon) and Level 3 (CenturyLink).

IPTV is the future, and I mean near future. Not just streaming services, but for standard cable company channel offerings. 5G may well solve the last mile cost problem for AT&T/Verizon and overbuilders like Google.

Hopefully there will be more competition in the near future.

Good info. I would suggest a slight edit: Since Oklahoma was the heart of Southwestern Bell territory and my daddy spent 35 years working for them, I have always had the view that the current AT&T was the result of SW Bell gobbling up other parts of the Bell System in the quarter century after divestiture. And for course, taking back the AT&T name was the ultimate sign that they had achieved World Dominion.

If you haven't already switched: http://start.duckduckgo.com I started using it full time about a year ago, and I like it more than Google the vast majority of the time.


Yup. Firefox browser, Duck Duck Go search engine. Google as a company exploits your data in whatever ways they can. Like Facebook, they just have little concern for their user's privacy, or the larger society, beyond their profits. There are alternatives that are usually not perfect, but much better.
Thank you for this information. I will be switching, it’s just a matter of time.

Good info. I would suggest a slight edit: Since Oklahoma was the heart of Southwestern Bell territory and my daddy spent 35 years working for them, I have always had the view that the current AT&T was the result of SW Bell gobbling up other parts of the Bell System in the quarter century after divestiture. And for course, taking back the AT&T name was the ultimate sign that they had achieved World Dominion.

Yes, the current AT&T was at it's core Southwestern Bell, or SBC, based in San Antonio up until they bought out the long distance company AT&T. The old AT&T was floundering at the time after buying and failing to integrate TCI Cable, then the largest cable company in the US. AT&T sold AT&T Cable to Comcast creating what today is ComcastNBC and then AT&T was bought by SBC, who renamed themselves AT&T and moved to Dallas.

dont they use "at&t" to distinguish themselves from the former AT&T?

I don’t think so. They still use the Death Star logo. There is a lot of pride within the old Southwestern Bell roots and they want to show how they gobbled up the old Bell System.
WMBTOPCITBWNTNALI.

The entire point of Southwestern Bell buying the AT&T name was for the name. They're definitely not ever going to do anything to distance themselves from that.

It looks like Google is giving Fiber another push. I wonder if they’ll still come to OKC.

https://www.engadget.com/google-fiber-5gbps-8gbps-plans-170026013.html

It looks like Google is giving Fiber another push. I wonder if they’ll still come to OKC.

https://www.engadget.com/google-fiber-5gbps-8gbps-plans-170026013.html

If I could tell Cox to go **** themselves and pay someone else I would be so happy.

It looks like Google is giving Fiber another push. I wonder if they’ll still come to OKC.

https://www.engadget.com/google-fiber-5gbps-8gbps-plans-170026013.html

That’s not what the article says. This is GF increasing speeds in their existing markets. Their current expansion plans are extremely modest and they do not include OKC. I’ll believe expansion to OKC is a possibility when I see them successfully expand in smaller metros because they have a long history of not knowing what they are doing when it comes to creating and maintaining the city relations necessary to be successful. I will also wait to believe it’s a possibility when I see a change in attitude and culture with much of the current GF leadership. They wanted to withdraw from OKC almost from the moment they announced expansion in 2015 and there were constant internal battles to keep the expansion plans in place, until the anti-OKC crowd was handed a gift in the form of a national “strategic pause.”

That’s not what the article says. This is GF increasing speeds in their existing markets. Their current expansion plans are extremely modest and they do not include OKC. I’ll believe expansion to OKC is a possibility when I see them successfully expand in smaller metros because they have a long history of not knowing what they are doing when it comes to creating and maintaining the city relations necessary to be successful. I will also wait to believe it’s a possibility when I see a change in attitude and culture with much of the current GF leadership. They wanted to withdraw from OKC almost from the moment they announced expansion in 2015 and there were constant internal battles to keep the expansion plans in place, until the anti-OKC crowd was handed a gift in the form of a national “strategic pause.”

What does West Des Moines offer that OKC does not?

I think Google Fiber would do fine here. AT&T Fiber is doing well.

What does West Des Moines offer that OKC does not?

I think Google Fiber would do fine here. AT&T Fiber is doing well.

I don't know what they see in West Des Moines vs OKC; maybe one day GF will tell us. I could give an educated guess if I were familiar with WDM, but I'm not.

That’s not what the article says. This is GF increasing speeds in their existing markets. Their current expansion plans are extremely modest and they do not include OKC. I’ll believe expansion to OKC is a possibility when I see them successfully expand in smaller metros because they have a long history of not knowing what they are doing when it comes to creating and maintaining the city relations necessary to be successful. I will also wait to believe it’s a possibility when I see a change in attitude and culture with much of the current GF leadership. They wanted to withdraw from OKC almost from the moment they announced expansion in 2015 and there were constant internal battles to keep the expansion plans in place, until the anti-OKC crowd was handed a gift in the form of a national “strategic pause.”
No but for awhile it almost seemed like Google was going to give up on Fiber. At least the way I interpreted it. I seen them recall bailing on some city they had already started physical work in(Louisville maybe?) and the future of Fiber even in cities like Kansas City seemed to be in question. Google has a bad track record of starting things and then abandoning them.

But maybe with this announcement of them increasing their speeds that means they are investing into their system and perhaps an expansion is in play. They already planned OKC in the past so it seems we’d have a good potential of being first into part of an expansion plan of theirs. That’s what I meant.

I don't know what they see in West Des Moines vs OKC; maybe one day GF will tell us. I could give an educated guess if I were familiar with WDM, but I'm not.
Having lived briefly in Des Moines, WDM is richer than OKC per capita, and it's denser.

If I could tell Cox to go **** themselves and pay someone else I would be so happy.

I live in the northern fringe of Cleveland County where OECFiber is building out. I have them within a mile in all directions *except* my neighborhood. They refuse to give any details about builout plans, and I swear I'd drop Cox like a hot rock for symmetric 1Gbps fiber. But zilch yet. So frustrating.

I live in the northern fringe of Cleveland County where OECFiber is building out. I have them within a mile in all directions *except* my neighborhood. They refuse to give any details about builout plans, and I swear I'd drop Cox like a hot rock for symmetric 1Gbps fiber. But zilch yet. So frustrating.

We might have been neighbors before I moved! I spent years watching with bated breath for OEC to make it into my neighborhood with the same situation of it being all around but not actually where I lived. Then I moved and now I have AT&T Fiber which I've been happy with so far.

We got OEC fiber last year. I'll never go back to Cox. Nothing but issues when we did WFH for years.

I hope OEC, Dobson, ATT and even Google Fiber come into town. Cox needs competition or they will never improve.

i never had any serious issues with cox but switched as soon as oec was offered in my area. i've been really happy with it so far. for me, the dodgiest part with cox was dealing with their contractors. the installers for oec were lightyears more pleasant and professional than anybody from cox... though, admittedly, my sample size is low. i'm getting around 950Mbps real-world out of the 1Gbps advertised rate. my biggest reason for switching was the data caps that cox imposed a few years ago... it just rubbed me the wrong way that they decided to downgrade the service without reducing the bill.

what was frustrating for me was that oec built out my parents' neighborhood nearly a year before mine... and i don't think that oec provides electric services within a mile of any direction from them. i'd like to switch them over, but i'm not sure that they can cope with switching out their "@cox.net" email addresses.

i never had any serious issues with cox but switched as soon as oec was offered in my area. i've been really happy with it so far. for me, the dodgiest part with cox was dealing with their contractors. the installers for oec were lightyears more pleasant and professional than anybody from cox... though, admittedly, my sample size is low. i'm getting around 950Mbps real-world out of the 1Gbps advertised rate. my biggest reason for switching was the data caps that cox imposed a few years ago... it just rubbed me the wrong way that they decided to downgrade the service without reducing the bill.

what was frustrating for me was that oec built out my parents' neighborhood nearly a year before mine... and i don't think that oec provides electric services within a mile of any direction from them. i'd like to switch them over, but i'm not sure that they can cope with switching out their "@cox.net" email addresses.

Data caps should be illegal. It is clearly a way to make up for revenue now that people no longer want cable. Anti-consumer.

What does West Des Moines offer that OKC does not?

I think Google Fiber would do fine here. AT&T Fiber is doing well.

West Des Moines: 48 square miles
OKC: 620 square miles

Quicker to lay/install fiber in a footprint 1/12 the size of OKC. Also, West Des Moines may not have a fiber provider already.

ATT has been aggressive in OKC with laying/installing fiber in new home construction areas, and the price has been competitive. What would Google Fiber offer that ATT does not?