In a brilliant master-stroke, between 2001-2005, Google bought out dark fiber, dirt-cheap, from many failed Telcos, http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Infrastructure/Google-and-Its-Co...

Now they reap the benefits.

Here's an article from 2007 that says they've been buying fiber for years:

http://www.voip-news.com/feature/google-dark-fiber-050707/

I think this is fairly common. We had this at Bank of America too; our own non-Internet IP-based network. It even did multicast, almost.

Yeah, but did BoA buy actual fiber in the ground? You can have your own non-Internet IP network easily if you lease dedicated physical circuits from telcos. (This is how the military does it)

It is very common for companies to have dark fiber built between data centers. Once you hit a certain threshold, it is more economical than lit services for a given path.

Yep, the cost of installing the cable (digging trenches, pulling through conduit, and whatnot) usually dwarfs the cost of the cable itself. If you're taking the hit anyway, running multiple fibers/conductors is a wise investment.

This is true even on a small scale. When I was upgrading the phone wiring in my house a number of years ago I went ahead and ran ethernet and coax all over the place while I was at it. If you're already on your back in a crawl space, it isn't that much more hassle to drill a few extra holes. :-)

And also there's a glut of dark fibre from the telco bubble a few years ago.

See for example this from a decade ago: (http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/aug2001/nf200108...)

And this, from about ten years ago: (http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2002/04/11/global-crossing...)

> This is true even on a small scale. When I was upgrading the phone wiring in my house a number of years ago I went ahead and ran ethernet and coax all over the place while I was at it. If you're already on your back in a crawl space, it isn't that much more hassle to drill a few extra holes.

I agree. Wired is always handy. Other people - people buying your house - may disagree. Those people might prefer wifi, even if wifi is unsuitable for the building, even if there are very many neighbours with over-powered wifi on nearby channels.

Presumably you could use lambdas or SONET or MPLS circuits or something (at Google-scale that would cost more, but it may be cheaper for smaller networks); it doesn't have to be private fiber per se.

Not only have they been buying fiber - they have been actively installing it in various cities and residential areas....

Remember that AT&T commercial from 1997 where they said "and imagine all these services coming to you from one company" and it should a data jack - implying that you would get everything from that AT&T cable... well -- google wants to be that port.