Although the idea of Google Fiber rolling into your neighborhood and obliterating incumbent cable providers may be a pipe dream in the short term, at least one analyst thinks that Google’s fiber-to-the-home network will pose serious challenges for both the cable and telecom industries in the long run. Per MarketWatch, Bernstein analyst Carlos Kirjner has issued a new research note explaining why Google Fiber is “an attractive risk-return profile, with very limited downside and potential for material economic upside” that could disrupt the American Internet service provider landscape.
While Google Fiber’s impact likely won’t be felt for many more years, Kirjner thinks that its deployment could mark “the beginning of the end for traditional telephone and cable companies and the beginning of Google becoming more powerful than old RCA and old AT&T combined.” He also compares cable companies and telcos to frogs that are placed in water that’s slowly being brought to a boil, in that they may not understand the danger they’re in until they’ve already been cooked.
