Google Fiber Scaled Back, Hundreds of Employees Lost

Megalith

24-bit/48kHz
Staff member
Joined
Aug 20, 2006
Messages
13,000
The good news here is that there are no layoffs involved, but a ton of Google Fiber employees (or, more specifically, workers for Access, Alphabet/Google’s internet business division) are being shuffled away to “key growth areas” such as YouTube. If you are hoping for a greater expansion of Fiber, don’t hold your breath—in fact, there are murmurs that the service will be sold off entirely. Wired has a more optimistic take, claiming that they will focus on radical wireless technologies.

The hundreds of employees leaving Access are on top of the layoffs at Access last year after the company announced it was halting plans to expand Google Fiber to more cities, meaning the Access has a much smaller staff now. Craig Barratt, the former head of Access, also stepped down last year. Recently, there has been speculation that Alphabet will ultimately sell Google Fiber to another company. McCray is also on the board of CenturyLink, a company The Information recently speculated could be a buyer for Google Fiber. However, a source familiar with the matter says McCray will be stepping down from the CenturyLink board.
 
We keep talking about how great 5G is going to be, so this actually makese sense. Why run wires all underground everywhere all over neighborhoods and such when you could just broadcast from a tower? Sounds like WAAAAAAAAAAAAY cheaper in the long run as far as infrastructure costs.
 
I'm a little disappointed in what parts of the story you decided to share here. You painted a pretty bleak picture.

Since you left out the most important part, I'll include it here for you.


"Despite these changes, you won't have anything to worry about if you already have Fiber: you get to keep your high-speed internet. You can also still sign up for a connection if the service is available in your location, and Fiber will continue its rollout in Nashville, Louisville and San Antonio."

So you can still continue to sign up for the service in several different markets across the US. If you are moving into the area, you can still sign up for Google Fiber. Google Fiber will still continue to roll out in a few select markets.
 
Preliminary tests indicate that 5g is capable of 1 gig down. They are rolling out early infrastructure in the very near future at 400 meg down through AT&T. As the kinks get worked out in beta, speeds will scale up. Even at early speeds, 5G is 380mb faster download than my UVerse 23mb connection. Wireless high speed is the wave of the future. Infrastructure costs for rollout are significantly reduced on the provider's end with much improved coverage and an easier to adhere to requirements / compliance list compared to hardline / last mile etc...
 
Never ever plan on ATT or Verizon to give you much of anything. There will always be a high price associated with whatever service they happen to be selling that calendar year regardless of tech it's served on. This has been proved over and over again.

Sprint .. maybe since they are the underdog but Sprint is looking to merge to survive so Sprint as well know them won't be around much longer, a year or two.
 
Preliminary tests indicate that 5g is capable of 1 gig down. They are rolling out early infrastructure in the very near future at 400 meg down through AT&T. As the kinks get worked out in beta, speeds will scale up. Even at early speeds, 5G is 380mb faster download than my UVerse 23mb connection. Wireless high speed is the wave of the future. Infrastructure costs for rollout are significantly reduced on the provider's end with much improved coverage and an easier to adhere to requirements / compliance list compared to hardline / last mile etc...

This can't come soon enough. Stuck at 18 mb from ATT, as Comcast wants $20k to bring a line to my house. Neighbors 500 ft away have Comcast...
 
"claiming that they will focus on radical wireless technologies."
and why not look at the government politicians in the back pockets of the Corporates, slowing free enterprise to a standstill. All google wants to do is give the people a choice of an affordable broadband. What ever happened to competition. Isn't there enough laws on the books concerning competition through free enterprise. Why aren't those radical well-adjusted, protesters, protesting for something that benefits all Americans, not just a few.
 
"claiming that they will focus on radical wireless technologies."
and why not look at the government politicians in the back pockets of the Corporates, slowing free enterprise to a standstill. All google wants to do is give the people a choice of an affordable broadband. What ever happened to competition. Isn't there enough laws on the books concerning competition through free enterprise. Why aren't those radical well-adjusted, protesters, protesting for something that benefits all Americans, not just a few.

ISP monopoly is usually granted at the city or county level (it's called a 'franchise'). If you don't like your ISP, complain to city hall, and pay attention to the next city election.

The way the big cable companies usually bribe city governments is to offer free internet to all city buildings and a free city-government cable TV channel. The problem is that this "free" stuff is really subsidized by the cable subscribers of that city, which makes this an indirect tax, charged by the city onto the citizens, with the cable company acting as a profit-seeking middleman.
 
We keep talking about how great 5G is going to be, so this actually makese sense. Why run wires all underground everywhere all over neighborhoods and such when you could just broadcast from a tower? Sounds like WAAAAAAAAAAAAY cheaper in the long run as far as infrastructure costs.
Preliminary tests indicate that 5g is capable of 1 gig down. They are rolling out early infrastructure in the very near future at 400 meg down through AT&T. As the kinks get worked out in beta, speeds will scale up. Even at early speeds, 5G is 380mb faster download than my UVerse 23mb connection. Wireless high speed is the wave of the future. Infrastructure costs for rollout are significantly reduced on the provider's end with much improved coverage and an easier to adhere to requirements / compliance list compared to hardline / last mile etc...

latency.
 
anyone remember all that fiber laid that was paid for the 1996 telecommunications act?

yep fuck that shit the future is 5g (even though it isn't)
 
Preliminary tests indicate that 5g is capable of 1 gig down. They are rolling out early infrastructure in the very near future at 400 meg down through AT&T. As the kinks get worked out in beta, speeds will scale up. Even at early speeds, 5G is 380mb faster download than my UVerse 23mb connection. Wireless high speed is the wave of the future. Infrastructure costs for rollout are significantly reduced on the provider's end with much improved coverage and an easier to adhere to requirements / compliance list compared to hardline / last mile etc...

Wireless providers keep touting their technology, but are still plagued with problems. You constantly have to deal with overcrowded networks, poor signal, latency, cost and data caps. Infrastructure costs may be reduced, but thats only because they deploy and ignore, until the next gen comes out, so they can milk it as much as they can. Continuously improving the network doesnt get people to upgrade to the newer technology because the difference would be marginal.
 
my parents and sister are in Suwanee, Georgia and were hoping to see Google Fiber available later this year...guess not...it's currently available in Atlanta and plans were to expand out to other cities in Georgia in 2017...sounds a lot like the FiOS rollout which suddenly stopped expansion
 
The only reason Google Fiber is not taking off is because of ATT and Verizon and Lobbyists working on their behalf. They have fought Google tooth and nail to keep them off poles, the ground and even getting into apartment complexes. ATT and Verizon and others go to new apartment builds, sometimes before they are even in the ground and cut multi-year deals with the apartment to only allow ATT, or Time Warner or Verizion service. Go do a Google search. It's horse shit is what it is.

Why? Protecting their business model. They don't want you having raw unlimited 1gbit internet speed so you can become a cord cutter.

They want to give less and charge you more. That's America for you.

You guys are fucked over not because of Google but greed. So lets get that straight right here right now.

It's absolutely fucking mind boggling that a few of you would celebrate this loss, make light of Google failing in such a gleeful manner when the only person it's hurt is .... YOU.
 
Last edited:
Preliminary tests indicate that 5g is capable of 1 gig down. They are rolling out early infrastructure in the very near future at 400 meg down through AT&T. As the kinks get worked out in beta, speeds will scale up. Even at early speeds, 5G is 380mb faster download than my UVerse 23mb connection. Wireless high speed is the wave of the future. Infrastructure costs for rollout are significantly reduced on the provider's end with much improved coverage and an easier to adhere to requirements / compliance list compared to hardline / last mile etc...


Hmmm, so my future 5G phone, when I go home, will connect to my 5G wireless router and then .... connect to a 5G broadband connection for my home to my ISP ?

I am thinking there is a long term plan here and it doesn't look like this.

I am thinking that all that data that I wait to download for when I get home and can connect to my home wireless network, is going to start costing my data plan instead.
 
I can't get into detail without discussing work stuff, but I'm being told at this time the Fiber to the home "only" business is becoming too costly to maintain. You can expect to see legacy competing MSOs start rolling out their version of Fiber to the home here in the coming months if not already depending on your carrier.
 
I have a Google Engineer here in Kansas City on speed dial His name is XXXXX. He takes my calls and answers my questions. Google Fiber isn't being sold. He used the words "I can promise you that is not happening" He even told me they were going to announce a new president weeks ago which they did yesterday.
 
I'm in Doraville and since Google isn't connectiing to houses/duplexes/etc and only expensive apartments, I was able to get AT&T fiber. As much as I want to suck on Googles chesticles and drink that koolaide, I am fine with a flat $70 a month and these speeds:

6059255455.png


But anyways, fuck Cumcast. As soon as I got fiber installed, I called up Cumcast and canceled and never looked back. Matter of fact, when and if I move from my current place, if I can't get fiber, I aint moving there.
 
Wireless providers keep touting their technology, but are still plagued with problems. You constantly have to deal with overcrowded networks, poor signal, latency, cost and data caps. Infrastructure costs may be reduced, but thats only because they deploy and ignore, until the next gen comes out, so they can milk it as much as they can. Continuously improving the network doesnt get people to upgrade to the newer technology because the difference would be marginal.


Yeah, screw 5g or any future wireless technology.

It may be fine for trivial use on phones or other toys, but there's no way in hell I'm using it for my home.
 
Less than a week ago, I was explicitly told on this forum: "Google Fiber isn't giving up."

I still don't see how that statement was ever true.
 
my isp is actually using an LTE antenna/radio on my house, although i'm only getting 8Mbps thats all the offer right now (its a small ISP), they said they can push 80Mbps thought it. so i'm sure they are talking about the radios when they say 5G and not the actually company like ATT /Verizon. Google can use the radios and sell internet to you !
 
They are suppose to be covering the Raleigh/Durham area. But it's a slow process. No clue when we'll get it.
 
Was it ever a profitable venture?

I never saw Google Fiber as being a profitable venture. It's to large of a venture for Google alone. But it has forced other companies to step up their games. AT&T quickly updated to fiber in our area. Time Warner increased their speeds immediately too. I'm still holding out for Google Fiber to hit our street (whenever that day comes). If they drop work, then I'll sadly probably switch from TWC 300/30 to AT&T Fiber if it's fully implemented in our neighborhood.
 
You'd think with as much money/influence Google has aquired by now that at least every major city at least would have had fiber installed. But maybe bc of 5g hopes that why googles pushing their cell development further. Maybe googles got the dream of being your all stop shop for internet, cell, etc.
 
So... ADHD the company figured out that building wireline access is hard and takes lots of work and patience, and now they don't wanna do it? I am shocked, shocked I tell you. SUPER shocked.

:|
 
ISP monopoly is usually granted at the city or county level (it's called a 'franchise'). If you don't like your ISP, complain to city hall, and pay attention to the next city election.

The way the big cable companies usually bribe city governments is to offer free internet to all city buildings and a free city-government cable TV channel. The problem is that this "free" stuff is really subsidized by the cable subscribers of that city, which makes this an indirect tax, charged by the city onto the citizens, with the cable company acting as a profit-seeking middleman.

franchise applies only to cable tv. If the only company that you consider to be an ISP is the local cable company that is a different issue. That said, yes you should complain to your city in some cases. In others it might just be that nobody gives a fuck about you and not making a profit to give you better speeds. I deal with that all the time. Look at a map of a city that we are looking at trying to go into and overbuild with fiber. You see that in an area there is Comcast, frontier and a few wireless internet companies. Then have to decide is it worth $500,000 to try to make 300 - 400 homes fiber capable with the possibility of maybe getting 10% to sign up. You are never going to see a return on that investment. The problem is that most people don't give care how they get service into their homes. A few do because they know from the media that fiber is cool thing to have, but most honestly do care. We can go through an area and be running fiber to every house and have people come out and tell us not to put it to their house as they have Comcast and have no desire to ever leave them. The first issue is that fiber and gigabit seem to get stuck together a lot which isn't that case in many places. You are just trading copper for fiber, which means you can, and in may cases will, still have a speed package that you can select.

But yes, to your point if there is actively something keeping anyone else from doing anything it would be more localized to that area as nothing federal or normally even state is doing anything to block anyone. Anything at that level is keeping everyone period from doing stuff (ISPs, power, gas, etc)

anyone remember all that fiber laid that was paid for the 1996 telecommunications act?

yep fuck that shit the future is 5g (even though it isn't)

Not very much that is how much. Even had the big 3 that got most of the money not given it all to their execs the amount of money that was handed out wouldn't have done much outside of the back bone. We used our share to buy used equipment AT&T was removing to be able to supply ADSL (speeds up to 8Mbps) to our 50% of our customers as that was all that we could afford along with some of the fiber the connected said units. We already had some fiber in the ground so didn't have to build all of it. And still all we could afford was used equipment for supplying shitty DSL to a fraction of our customers. Which I mean made it better than dialup for them.

Yeah, screw 5g or any future wireless technology.

It may be fine for trivial use on phones or other toys, but there's no way in hell I'm using it for my home.

This is actually shows a little bit of ignorance on your part. What reason do you have for your comment there? I can almost promise that you are 100% wrong in whatever you are thinking. Somebody above said latency. Which anyone who thinks that is a problem doesn't know what they are talking about. In all honestly that actually could be an acceptable method of data transmission for some areas. I work for an ISP. Our current wireless deployment is on none LTE (4G) technology and we currently see 6 - 8 ms ping times to our customers. Which really isn't that bad, sure 0ms is desired but less than 10 isn't bad at all. Being LTE or 5G doesn't mean that you have something going through a phone carrier, it is simply a standard similar to 802.11 where you get further range. If designed correctly for the network it can be done as a good solution. Personally I would rather put fiber to everywhere, but I also know that fixed wireless really isn't that horrible of a solution if you get past the issue of signal loss in an area if you are using a platform that can get you speeds that people want.
 
I have zero proof of what I'm about to say, but maybe there was some other reason Google put fiber in these few select environments. Maybe they made money some how off it. Either through grants or selling it off or something. I just can't see Google, the most valuable company in the world, doing something solely for the goodness of the world. Sorry.

I do agree with the grievances in this thread about the state of broadband. And I think Google could have easily played into those emotions. But I'm just not buying it that Google did this because they wanted to send a message on behalf of the little guy.

Again, I have zero evidence of this claim. It's my gut feeling.
 
BTW, someone needs to make goggles that pick up RF frequencies....it would make killer night vision goggles. The entire world is lit by this stuff.

maxresdefault.jpg


Also you would see the aliens
 
And what is your opinion on Wireless Local Loop?

I don't trust anything wireless, not even wifi or wireless mice.

Wireless technologies are always inferior and less reliable than their wired counterparts.

Sure, they can do in a pinch if you absolutely need to be mobile, but I never trust a wireless technology and never use it in an application where a wired solution is possible.
 
Yeah, screw 5g or any future wireless technology.

It may be fine for trivial use on phones or other toys, but there's no way in hell I'm using it for my home.
This. Some people like low ping times and other pluses that being hardwired offers.
 
We keep talking about how great 5G is going to be, so this actually makese sense. Why run wires all underground everywhere all over neighborhoods and such when you could just broadcast from a tower? Sounds like WAAAAAAAAAAAAY cheaper in the long run as far as infrastructure costs.
Interference, and ping issues?
 
Back
Top