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posted by on Friday October 28 2016, @11:34AM   Printer-friendly
from the if-google-doesn't-who-will dept.

Google Fiber is hitting the pause button on discussion with "potential fiber cities", and will lay off about 9% of its approximately 1,500 employees. Craig Barratt, the CEO of Alphabet's Access division, is also stepping down.

After rolling out its Fiber product in about a dozen cities, Google is hitting pause on its project to deploy superfast Internet across the country. The news may come as a disappointment to those who were hoping the search giant would bring competition and faster speeds to their area.

[...] Even as Google Fiber pays lots of money to lay down cables and secure access to TV programming, a different type of technology is coming down the pike: wireless fiber. [...] There are signs that Google is moving in this direction, too. In June, it acquired Webpass, a provider of wireless broadband. Other acquisitions support this theory. And in its announcement Tuesday, Google Fiber said it would be looking at "new technology and deployment methods to make superfast Internet more abundant than it is today." So even if Google Fiber is on hold in its current incarnation, changes in technology may someday reduce the costs Google faces today.

Comcast and AT&T are still trying to hinder Google Fiber access to utility poles in Nashville. Both ISPs have filed suit against the Metro Government of Nashville for passing a "One Touch Make Ready" ordinance that benefits Google Fiber.

Previously: Google Fiber Gets Rid of "Free" Service in Kansas City
Costly Google Fiber Service Being Scaled Back in Favor of Google Wireless
Nashville Officials Approve Ordinance to Give Google Fiber Faster Access to Utility Poles


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 28 2016, @01:54PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 28 2016, @01:54PM (#419831)

    I guess their UTILITY became FUTILITY! You really showed those ISPs huh Google?

    The silver lining in this is that we now see what arm-chair quarterbacking nets you. Everyone likes to talk shit how easy something is even thou they have no fucking clue about it. I hate the current ISPs as much as the next guy but they are the result of the landscape. The system is more convoluted and complicated than even the geniuses at Google could ever imagine. You can't just say you will run a piece of wire from point A to point B and expect to just incur the cost of the wire plus $10/hour you pay some shlop to sling it.

  • (Score: 5, Informative) by art guerrilla on Friday October 28 2016, @03:13PM

    by art guerrilla (3082) on Friday October 28 2016, @03:13PM (#419863)

    don't be daft...
    it isn't 'complicated' and 'hard' because of technical or physical limitations, or someone just can't do the super-difficult calculus problem: it is 'complicated' and 'hard' because of the interference, regulatory capture, complicit municipal pols, and TOTAL OBSTRUCTIONISM of the monopolistic big boys who you are trying to nip at their OBSCENELY PROFITABLE extortion racket...
    wise up, kamper...
    (or, foad, shillbot)