Google Fiber Moving Forward Despite Cuts Google Fiber's decision to pivot to wireless and eliminate a small number of employees have stoked fears that Google has gotten cold feet about its massive bet on broadband. But the company continues to insist that the pause in deployment to the company's list of future "potential" Google Fiber launch markets like Portland are because the company is bullish on next-generation wireless broadband -- not because it's having second thoughts about challenging the entrenched incumbent broadband (mono)duopoly.

Speaking on the company's earnings call, Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat made it clear that these eight "paused" cities (Portland, Chicago, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Diego, San Jose, and Tampa) may not be paused for long. "We’re making great progress in those cities and we remain committed to growth in those cities," Porat said on the Google/Alphabet earnings call. "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." Google has filed applications with the FCC to conduct trials in the 71-76 GHz and 81-86 GHz millimeter wave bands, and is also conducting a variety of different tests in the 3.5 GHz band, the 5.8 GHz band and the 24 GHz band. It also recently acquired line of sight wireless provider Webpass as part of the company's decision to integrate wireless alongside traditional fiber. Meanwhile, service and deployment expansion of traditional fiber continue in the company's original launch markets (Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Kansas City, Nashville, Provo, Salt Lake City, and The Triangle in North Carolina) as well as markets that were promised fiber connectivity (Huntsville, Alabama; San Antonio, Texas; Louisville, Kentucky; and Irvine, California). It still remains entirely possible that Access/Google execs get tired of the costly effort and sell the project off in a few years, but for now Google Fiber lives on -- just with decidedly less actual fiber in future expansion cities. It still remains entirely possible that Access/Google execs get tired of the costly effort and sell the project off in a few years, but for now Google Fiber lives on -- just with decidedly less actual fiber in future expansion cities.







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Most recommended from 36 comments



davidc502

join:2002-03-06

Mount Juliet, TN 7 recommendations davidc502 Member Just my observations here I don't have a inside track as to what Google fiber is doing, but am assuming the following attitude from Google.



A speculated Google perspective

1. People love to complain about at&t/Comcrap/TimeWarner etc... However we are still being held back significantly in various cities. This is getting very old.

2. We at looking at wireless technologies because those technologies might be the answer to having easier distribution helping to avoid the problems in #1.

3. We are significantly below the number of FTTH subscribers, and will not continue to give cart-blanche to the fiber group without the promised results... Hence why were are putting other cities on hold.



I truly believe Google Fiber will continue to work hard to deploy FTTH, but believe they will be more strategic on how they do it. Some might say they are being smarter about it.



Really, if you think about it, Google Fiber's edge was low cost and high bandwidth compared to crappy cable. However, the crappy cable companies will stall deployments until cable technology pretty much takes the edge off of fiber to the home I.E. Increased speeds.



With so much time going by, I think Google fiber has lost some of its edge to the cable companies who have scrambled to increase speeds. Though in all reality in most markets it is a PR stunt, and few people actually have gig speeds. If you hear a 'lie' enough times, it slowly becomes the truth doesn't it?





tshirt

Premium Member

join:2004-07-11

Snohomish, WA 5 recommendations tshirt Premium Member GF needs a new moniker.... Stories referring to Google Fiber that are actually about wireless, are like frontier selling xDSL as FiOS.

We need a more descriptive term.

nothing00

join:2001-06-10

Centereach, NY 2 recommendations nothing00 Member Wrong person? Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat? Are they sure that's not Fran Shammo?