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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
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 28 2016, @09:13PM
I'm a wage earner. I set aside some of what I earn, and invest it. That's money on which I already paid income tax. But if I am lucky enough (or careful enough) to make a good investment, I get taxed again.
Oh, and the company I invested in, that made me some return? That got taxed too. I'm only taxed 15% on what's left over after the money has been through a car wash of previous taxes.
But to some people, even 100% tax would not be enough.
By the way, there is no such thing as handing someone a tax cut. When a mugger sticks a gun in my belly and takes my wallet, is he giving me a gift if he returns one of my five-dollar bills that he took?
I hate this argument, because it misrepresents taxes. Everything gets taxed. This idea of double taxation is silly.
For example, you buy a hamburger, and that sale gets taxed. The hamburger stand pays the meat distributor, and that sale gets taxed. The meat distributor pays the factory, and that sale gets taxed. The factory pays the farm, and that sale gets taxed. Etc.
Would you agree if McDonalds said "the farmers already paid tax, so we should be tax exempt?" Or how about the argument that "I founded Apple with my own money 30 years ago, so all of that profit grown since then should be tax free?"
Are you really proposing a "first-tax doctrine" where only the first distribution of money from the Federal Reserve gets taxed and nothing else?