Google Reassures Current Cities Everything Remains on Target

After announcing last week that it was pausing some potential fiber cities to ponder a shift to wireless, Google Fiber has been busy this week trying to reassure its existing (and now quite confused) cities that nothing is changing for them, and the company remains dedicated to completing its promised deployments. Google Fiber says it has "paused" deployments in eight cities where it had been considering deployment, including Portland, Chicago, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Diego, San Jose/Palo Alto, and Tampa. Of those, Portland had done the most to prepare for service.

But Google Fiber is continuing fiber expansion in the company's existing cities (Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Kansas City, Nashville, Provo, Salt Lake City, and The Triangle in North Carolina) as well as the cities where deployment has only just begun (Huntsville, San Antonio, Louisville, and Irvine).

"We've already begun construction here in San Antonio and things are moving forward," Google Fiber tells local San Antonio news outlets. “So we don’t expect an impact here."

“Google Fiber isn’t leaving Austin,” the similarly tells the Austin American Statesman. “We’re still thrilled to be your neighbor and continue to offer superfast Internet to residents."

Elsewhere, cities that believed they were joining the gigabit competition race are frustrated. Palo Alto, California, for example, is looking at additional options -- realizing that even if Google Fiber does rekindle plans for the city using wireless, the millimeter wave technology Google Fiber is considering won't be ready for some time.

"With the resignation of their CEO, I think we can expect quite a lengthy wait between now and when they might return with a brand new wireless offering for high-speed internet," Palo Alto Chief IT Officer Jonathan Reichental tells the Mercury News , adding (probably quite correctly) that Google Fiber's wireless efforts could take until the "end of the decade."