Google Fiber — Attraction in Irvine

I have been a google fiber subscriber for the past 1.5 years. Initially when I found out I could get fiber, I was really excited at the thought of being able to get affordable and fast speeds in my area. I had previously less than ideal experiences with other service providers in the past so was looking forward to some potentially improved experiences with Google.

From the get go, the process seemed simple enough, however that was where I was wrong.

The hardware that Google is using (Nest Pros) is vastly inferior to all other options on the market from other service providers. a few examples are = poor connection, slow connection, inconsistent connection. These are almost all related to the poor hardware that you are forced to use with Google. The other alternative is to buy your own equipment = but that sort of defeats the purpose of looking for an affordable option.

In my first location I used it in, I was in a 2 bedroom single story condo. Very small place around 1100 square feet. With the nest in multiple rooms in the house, could not a consistent connection at all. Fiber claims up to 1 GIG speeds wired in. I was only able to get max 780 Mbps wired in BUT it was never consistent with constant drops. During work calls I was also constantly getting disconnected due a poor connection (both wired in and wifi). Finally I gave up trying with the google hardware and I went to Costco and bought a router. You could tell an immediate change. I was able to get a max 980 Mbps wired in and an impressive 876 Mpbs on my newer wifi devices (such as my phone).

When I moved to a new location, I got fiber again thinking maybe things have gotten better. Unfortunately, nothing has changed. In my new place which is a 2 story townhouse, it is much worse. plugged directly in, I was only able to get 450 Mbps and best wifi connection was around the same. Throughout the house however, wifi was nonexistent as low as 10-20 Mbps and often times dropping connection. At this rate, dial up connections would even be faster.

Even after contacting customer support in both instances, it was dead ends. Tech support is limited to the hardware in which they are asked to use by Google. And I was given no options except to spend my own money to get a much better performing internet connection in my home. They even sent out a "tech support manager" to oversee the work that was being done, but ultimately they were unable to fix it and I was essentially told to deal with it or change service providers.

Eventually I had to take matters into my own hands and do my own research, setup my own equipment and run my own home network using google fiber. Sadly enough, I now have to house a couple of nest pros which are now just paper weights taking up space in my garage cabinet.

If you're in the Irvine area, you're pretty much given only a couple of options with Google Fiber being one of them. The low quality customer support + horrendous hardware you are asked to use makes Google Fiber nearly unusable. If I was less tech savvy and less stubborn, I would likely still be sitting here with a slow and spotty connection.

Best of luck to anyone who is still struggling with their Google Fiber service and fair warning to anyone who doesn't have fiber and is considering it still after reading this lengthy review. You've...

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