This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this folio. Terms of utilise.

Google Fiber

For four years, Google Fiber has offered a high-speed Net admission culling. The impact of its $70-for-gigabit-fiber plans has been enormous — competitors similar AT&T, Comcast, and Time Warner have all variously slashed prices and improved their access speeds when Google enters metropolitan markets. For those of us who don't live in one of the company's seven metropolitan coverage areas, there was always the hope Google would bring the service to a nearby urban center at some point in the time to come.

At present, those plans appear to exist foundering. While Google Cobweb has been well-received in the press and technical publications, actual sign-ups appear to be far below the company's target goal of five meg people. Alphabet CEO Larry Page has reportedly asked the CEO of Fiber, Craig Barratt, to cut his staff in half and downsize to just 500 people.

The bug stacked against Cobweb are meaning. Digging to lay new cobweb optic cable is extremely expensive — a similar problem is the reason Verizon stopped expanding FiOS into new markets years ago, though the company has recently made racket about restarting the initiative. One major problem may be customers — apparently Google Fiber simply had near 200,000 paying customers at the finish of 2014, and while we don't know how many it has now, information technology seems unlikely to make its original goal of 5 million customers within ii years.

Google Fiber expansion plans

Seven metro areas, only non many customers

Google has faced issues with expanding its network into new areas; AT&T has been accused of refusing to work with Google on line-sharing issues in metropolitan areas as required by law. Low subscription figures may accept been impacted past these problems, but part of the problem is likely that Comcast, AT&T, and other companies that observe themselves competing with Google Fiber magically notice they have the pick to deliver significantly faster speeds at lower prices. One time that happens, customers take less incentive to switch. Usefulness may be some other event. While I'd personally love to have Google Fiber, my chore also occasionally requires that I download huge amounts of data for game testing. If I didn't need to install several hundred GB of games from time to time, I wouldn't have nearly every bit much employ for Google Fiber. I suspect other potential customers may notice themselves in a similar gunkhole.

Google has talked almost using less expensive methods to connect its customers, including high speed wireless point-to-point access systems that would obviate the need to dig ditches and run cable. Unfortunately, well-nigh of the spectrum that's been floated for these kind of systems is extremely loftier-frequency, which means signal quality degrades if it rains or there are leaves betwixt the home and its line-of-sight transmitter. Since most Americans tend to prefer some dark-green leafy things around their homes and it rains nigh places, there'south limited enthusiasm for building these kind of solutions. Wireless fiber is an oxymoron.

Google Fiber continues to curlicue out in Table salt Lake Metropolis, its seventh metro expanse, only has paused in Portland and San Jose. Folio has reportedly told Barratt to cutting his cost of rolling out fiber to about a 10th of what it is currently — a goal that would be challenging to hit under any circumstances.