Google Fiber
Ranked 3 of 12 internet service providers by recommenders
Recommended for fast symmetric fiber at low, steady prices with near-perfect uptime. Common caveat: worries that Google may lose interest and shut the service down.
Recommended for fast symmetric fiber at low, steady prices with near-perfect uptime. Common caveat: worries that Google may lose interest and shut the service down.
30 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 18
- criticize it
- 12
- approval share
- 60%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 18 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Low, steady pricing
“My service has been effectively perfect. My price has barely changed in a long time”
Comment from 14 Mar 2026 in “Google Fiber will be sold to private equity firm and merge with cable company” “1gb symmetrical for $70, so 3x more down and 100x more up for less money.”
Comment from 14 Mar 2026 in “Google Fiber will be sold to private equity firm and merge with cable company” “maintained a low, no-nonsense price for years with near-perfect uptime”
Comment from 14 Mar 2026 in “Google Fiber will be sold to private equity firm and merge with cable company” - Comment from 6 Apr 2026 in “The Free Market Lie: Why Switzerland Has 25 Gbit Internet and America Doesn't”
Fast symmetric gigabit speeds
“Fiber is less expensive than and more than 10x faster than starlink, in fairness.”
Comment from 5 Dec 2025 in “UniFi 5G” “1gb symmetrical for $70, so 3x more down and 100x more up for less money.”
Comment from 14 Mar 2026 in “Google Fiber will be sold to private equity firm and merge with cable company” “Google Fiber entered the city offer 1gbit symmetric fiber for 60% less”
Comment from 6 Apr 2026 in “The Free Market Lie: Why Switzerland Has 25 Gbit Internet and America Doesn't” - Comment from 26 Aug 2026 in “France reaches 94.9% fiber coverage in 2026”
Near-perfect uptime and reliability
“My service has been effectively perfect. My price has barely changed in a long time”
Comment from 14 Mar 2026 in “Google Fiber will be sold to private equity firm and merge with cable company” “maintained a low, no-nonsense price for years with near-perfect uptime”
Comment from 14 Mar 2026 in “Google Fiber will be sold to private equity firm and merge with cable company” “Google Fiber has been the least-bad residential ISP I've dealt with.”
Comment from 13 Mar 2026 in “Google Fiber will be sold to private equity firm and merge with cable company” Pushed better broadband nationwide
“did a lot to both fulfill the promise of Universal Broadband AND challenge perception of what was possible with home broadband”
Comment from 14 Mar 2026 in “GFiber and Stonepeak's Astound to Combine” “It sounds like Google Fiber's underlying mission was successful: to improve the quality of Internet experience nationwide.”
Comment from 14 Mar 2026 in “Google Fiber will be sold to private equity firm and merge with cable company”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Distrust of Google as owner
“I know that fiber's service is technically good but I resent Google enough that I will not give them money”
Comment from 5 Aug 2026 in “No Data Centers in My Backyard” “I am personally so put off by the disrespectful attempt at manipulation that I consider switching less”
Comment from 5 Aug 2026 in “No Data Centers in My Backyard” Weak IPv6 support
“So Google Fiber giving a you a /64 is the same as saying - would you run your home network on a single /24.”
Comment from 2 May 2026 in “Why IPv6 is so complicated” “I still don't have IPv6 at home in the middle of San Francisco with Google Fiber / Webpass”
Comment from 3 Jan 2026 in “IPv6 just turned 30 and still hasn't taken over the world”
Other internet service providers people recommend
The four most recommended other internet service providers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starlink | 547 | 353 | 61% | 13 | 2 yrs12 owners | — |
| Comcast internet | 19 | 72 | 21% | 11 | 15 yrs4 owners | — |
| Google FiberThis page | 18 | 12 | 60% | 6 | — | — |
| Andrews & Arnold | 10 | 3 | 77% | 6 | — | Approved |
| AOL | 9 | 9 | 50% | 8 | — | — |
What people said
29 of the 30 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I'm not complaining a 5gbit connection is quite nice”
“I know that fiber's service is technically good but I resent Google enough that I will not give them money”
“I am personally so put off by the disrespectful attempt at manipulation that I consider switching less”
“For the longest time I could not stream YouTube on my Google fiber connection without constant buffering”
“It might be cheaper and faster now, but will that still be true in a few years once Google has gotten bored with the project?”
“So Google Fiber giving a you a /64 is the same as saying - would you run your home network on a single /24.”
“If you thought Google had a reputation for bad customer service... just wait!”
“Google Fiber entered the city offer 1gbit symmetric fiber for 60% less”
“had a gfiber/webpass outage that lasted longer than ever before”
“Allegedly Google had been funding with cash and losing money.”
“Currently on AT&T because they do FTTP while GFiber is microwave backhaul.”
“GFiber's brand equity was weirdly valuable because it was one of the few ISPs people talked about almost like a software product”
“maintained a low, no-nonsense price for years with near-perfect uptime”
“Google Fiber has been aggressively upselling us to a higher plan the last 6-12 months”
“fiber could've really been something great but the law just wouldn't allow it”
“largely ignored DMCA requests”
“1gb symmetrical for $70, so 3x more down and 100x more up for less money.”
“It sounds like Google Fiber's underlying mission was successful: to improve the quality of Internet experience nationwide.”
“My service has been effectively perfect. My price has barely changed in a long time”
“The real loss here isn't Google Fiber itself, it's the competitive pressure it created.”
“did a lot to both fulfill the promise of Universal Broadband AND challenge perception of what was possible with home broadband”
“Google Fiber has been the least-bad residential ISP I've dealt with.”
“Google was struggling because it has the attention span of a crackle addled flea.”
“I still don't have IPv6 at home in the middle of San Francisco with Google Fiber / Webpass”
“sticking them on a residential Google Fiber line in one of the cheap power states”
“The only issue was the Google Fiber terms of service — ie they could shut us down at any time.”
“Fiber is less expensive than and more than 10x faster than starlink, in fairness.”
“many of their most visibly high-effort in-house products have been dramatic failures”
“they did also have a Google Fiber buildout in my neighborhood”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.