Google parent company Alphabet announced Tuesday it planned to pause expansion of its high-speed fiber optic internet network and shrink the number of people working on the project.
Google Fiber will continue to be available in all cities it has been rolled out to, including those where it has already started building, but is ending operations in cities they have not started working in yet. The division also will lay off about nine percent of its staff.
The shift in operations was announced in a blog post by Craig Barratt, chief executive of Access, the Alphabet division Google Fiber exists under. In addition to announcing the pause, Barratt said he is stepping down as Fiber shifts its mission.
“Now, just as any competitive business must, we have to continue not only to grow, but also stay ahead of the curve — pushing the boundaries of technology, business and policy — to remain a leader in delivering superfast Internet,” Barrett wrote. “We have refined our plan going forward to achieve these objectives. It entails us making changes to focus our business and product strategy. Importantly, the plan enhances our focus on new technology and deployment methods to make superfast Internet more abundant than it is today.”
The Google Fiber project was started five years ago with the goal of delivering gigabit internet speeds to residential customers, with Kansas City as the first area gaining access to the superfast network. The company has installed a network and established service in Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Nashville, Provo and Salt Lake City in the time since.
Google Fiber has already starting building its infrastructure in Huntsville, Alabama, Irvine, California, San Antonio, Texas, and Louisville, Kentucky, and will complete the networks and start selling service. All other locations that were announced as potential destinations, however, are probably never going to see Fiber.
During the last year, Google had significantly expanded the list of cities it planned to expand to — and bought the company Webpass, which already offers wireless internet access in multi-unit dwellings — leading to a rumored tripling of the division’s staff.
Even with Barrett claiming success in the cities Fiber has been deployed in, the division has largely not hit subscriber goals as it invested vast sums of money into the network.
Previous reports suggested Fiber had been told to cut it’s 1,300 person staff in half, however the nine percent expected to be reassigned or laid off means about 130 people are still set to be moved off the project.
[Source:-UPI]
