In 2015, Google Fiber announced it was expanding to Nashville, bringing ultra-fast internet to residents eager for more options, faster speeds and better price competition.

More than two years later, Google Fiber has launched its service and has connected 26 apartment and condominium buildings. But, Google's highly anticipated rollout has also been hampered by the region's limestone floor, complex utility pole rules and a legal challenge to the city's new utility pole rules. Meanwhile, competitors AT&T and Comcast have surpassed Google's progress.

More than 150,000 homes and small businesses and more than 500 multifamily buildings have access to AT&T fiber in the Nashville area. Comcast has said all customers in the Middle Tennessee area have access to gigabit speeds through fiber or its modem technology.

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Google Fiber has been struggling with building its fiber network nationally. In the last year, it has paused fiber expansion in several cities, replaced its CEO, cut hundreds of employees and shifted its focus to wireless high-speed internet. The company said its commitment to Nashville has not changed.

"Google Fiber is committed to Nashville and to bringing superfast Internet to as many residents as possible,” a Google spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

Metro Council handed Google Fiber a win last fall surrounding pole attachment rules, approving a "One Touch Make Ready" ordinance designed to expedite the process of adding new lines to Nashville poles. But the hard-fought victory has not led to an increase in applications for above-ground installation this year.

To attach new lines to utility poles in Nashville this year, Google has submitted 15 applications to Nashville Electric Service, far less than the more than 3,500 applications it submitted in 2016, according to the public utilities company, which owns 80 percent of Nashville’s utility poles.

By comparison, Comcast has submitted 918 applications this year and 2,931 last year. AT&T has submitted 51 this year and 307 last year.

The applications do not account for underground installation or for lines added to AT&T-owned poles, which is the remaining 20 percent of the Nashville area.

Google officials said the company has not paused its installation, pointing to the 26 connected apartment buildings, up from four in April 2016, and to the large quantity of applications filed in 2016.

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The company said it also has been developing new installation techniques and will begin using the new One Touch Make Ready process in the coming weeks.

“After several months of design, and focusing with the city on additional construction innovations, we will be utilizing (One Touch Make Ready) construction under the approved NES process beginning in July, and are thrilled to continue to build in Nashville," a Google spokesperson said. "We plan to make use of this ‘one touch’ deployment technique — as well as other techniques — in a holistic approach to our build in Nashville."

AT&T declined to provide an explanation about its pole application numbers, which also significantly lag Comcast’s, but said its networks are continuously "upgraded and expanded."

Google was first to announce it was eyeing fiber in Nashville in 2014, and within months, AT&T followed with its own fiber exploration plans for Nashville. By June 2015, both Comcast and AT&T had begun connecting Nashville units to fiber. To consumers, it signaled the immediate impact that a third competitor had on the market.

The utility pole attachment process has been a key hurdle for Google, prompting the company to back the One Touch Maker Ready ordinance. A Google official said at a Metro Council hearing that without the ordinance's passage, installation could slow or stop.

The process in place at the time called for each company with a cable on a pole to move their line before a new one could be added and each line could take months to move. The One Touch Make Ready ordinance allows an approved contractor to move all the existing cables in one session.

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Comcast and AT&T opposed the ordinance, citing worker safety concerns and union contracts, and they filed lawsuits against Metro Nashville last year, arguing the council lacked the jurisdiction to regulate pole attachment.

In April, the lawsuit lost its presiding judge with the resignation of U.S. District Judge Kevin Sharp in Nashville, and it has since been transferred to U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts in the Eastern District of Michigan.

Metro Councilman Anthony Davis, who sponsored the controversial pole attachment legislation last year, said he was not concerned by the drop in application numbers from Google. Applications filed in the previous year are just now filtering through the system and a motion filed by NES last year concerning the One Touch ordinance has since been resolved.

"I am thrilled with the fact they are making some progress," Davis said. "It's not as fast as we want. It's showing how difficult this work is. But, they are making some progress."

Davis said he is also encouraged by the pole attachment activity among Comcast and AT&T, as it indicates upgrades to their networks and improved competition in the Nashville area.

"That prices are lowering and we are getting fiber from other carriers is awesome," he said.

Reach Jamie McGee at 615-259-8071 and on Twitter @JamieMcGee_.