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HughPickens.com writes:

The Wall Street Journal reports that Google Fiber has spent hundreds of millions dollars digging up streets and laying fiber-optic cables in a handful of cities to offer web connections roughly 30 times faster than the U.S. average but is now rethinking its high-speed internet business after initial rollouts have proved more expensive and time consuming than anticipated, a stark contrast to the fanfare that greeted its launch six years ago. The company is trying to cut costs and accelerate its expansion by leasing existing fiber or asking cities or power companies to build the networks instead of building its own. "If you're in the telecommunications industry for 150 years, there are no surprises here," said Jonathan Reichental. "But if you're a software company getting into the business for the first time, this is a completely new world."

Google Fiber last month bought Webpass Inc., a company that beams internet service from a fiber-connected antenna to another antenna mounted on an apartment building. Webpass Chief Executive Charles Barr, now an Alphabet employee, said wireless offers an opportunity to overcome the challenging economics of building fiber networks from scratch. "Everyone who has done fiber to the home has given up because it costs way too much money and takes way too much time." Some analysts have long suspected that Google Fiber's primary goal was to prod other broadband firms to increase their speeds. AT&T, Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Cable, which recently was acquired by Charter Communications Inc., have done so in some competing markets. Google Fiber insists that fiber to the home is a real business. "We continue to see Fiber as a huge market opportunity," Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat told investors last month. "We're being thoughtful and deliberate in our execution path."

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