AT&T Mocks Google Fiber's Struggles

AT&T has decided it's a good idea to make fun of Google Fiber's recent announcement that it's freezing new gigabit deployments as executives ponder a shift to wireless. In a new blog post by AT&T Senior Vice President for Wired and Wireless Products and Services Eric Boyer, the company pokes fun at Google's struggles by declaring that "making you search" is what Google does best, while deriding the company for engaging in "new-age marketing promises."

"What some of our competitors are just starting to realize (one after 6 years and only 8 metros) is that this endeavor is challenging," chides AT&T.

"We don’t take shortcuts," the company adds. "This is about good old-fashioned hard work, not new-age marketing promises that fall short in the end."

There's a few problems with AT&T's glib mockery. One being that many of the problems Google Fiber has been facing are courtesy of AT&T lobbyists. The company has not only lobbied for laws in more than a dozen states that hamstring public/private broadband partnerships, but it has also sued Nashville and Lousiville for implemeting pole attachment reform that would have sped up competitor deployments of fiber.

It's also interesting to see AT&T mock Google Fiber for deploying gigabit connections, given it was those deployments that spurred AT&T's own, scattered gigabit deployments. In fact, in markets where Google Fiber exists, AT&T is forced to charge up to $50 less per month for the same service.

And that's before we get to the fact that AT&T's "fiber to the press release" announcements declare markets "launched" when in many cases only a few housing developments, college dorms or apartments can actually get AT&T's service. Or the fact that AT&T's largest achievement this year was to impose usage caps and overage fees on all of the company's broadband subscribers. Or the fact that AT&T is spending $150 billion to buy DirecTV and Time Warner while millions of its broadband customers remain on DSL speeds circa 2002.

Meanwhile, AT&T's (and others) pithy Google Fiber funeral dirge may be a bit premature. While Google Fiber did layoff a small number of employees and has frozen possible expansions in eight markets it never actually officially promised service to, the company's build out continues in roughly twelve markets. And again, Google continues to claim that they're simply pausing because they're contemplating a pivot to next-generation wireless as a supplement to fiber, not because they're getting out of the broadband business entirely.

"We’re making great progress in those cities and we remain committed to growth in those cities," Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat said last week. "We’re pausing for now our work in eight cities where we’ve been in exploratory discussions. But very much to your question, it’s to better integrate some of the technology work we’ve been developing."

AT&T has long tried to outright deny that Google Fiber has hadon the company from a competitive perspective. Now AT&T's trying to bury Google Fiber six feet under with some glib wishful thinking. But even if Google Fiber does wind up being a pipe dream, the service is still a spotlight on the fact that most consumers want significantly better and faster broadband, at lower prices, that AT&T has traditionally been willing to offer.