Why Time Warner Cable’s NYC fiber rollout is nothing like Google’s

[Commentary] Time Warner Cable will spend $25 million to bringing the potential for gigabit broadband to hundreds of New York City office buildings through a fiber to the building rollout. This is awesome. But, it’s absolutely nothing like Google’s fiber-to-the-home buildout in Kansas City despite what multiple press reports may say.

Yes, both companies are deploying fiber and both will offer gigabit speeds, but that’s about the end of the similarity. Let’s start with the scope of the projects. Time Warner Cable is spending $25 million to connect “hundreds of buildings” in NYC, which means the cable company will extend its existing fiber to the building. At that point those tenants in the building will have to connect to the fiber in the building and bring it to their floor/offices. Analysts estimate Google is spending between $500 million and $800 million to connect parts of Kansas City. It’s not just the spending that’s different, and understanding what else is can help explain why the U.S. broadband infrastructure is not keeping up. Comparing TWC’s investments in its network to Google’s network investments, just because TWC tosses the words gigabit and fiber around, is like comparing McDonald’s oatmeal to the porridge nutritionists recommend because both contain oats. Don’t buy into that hype.