A report in The Information cited by Gizmodo says that Google Fiber take-up has fallen well short of the company’s expectations, and that the company is slashing its workforce in response and seeking to dramatically cut costs.
Fiber executives had ambitious hopes of signing up around 5 million subscribers in five years, said a person close to Google’s parent, Alphabet. But by the end of 2014, more than two years after service began, Google had only signed up around 200,000 broadband subscribers, said a former employee. The current number isn’t known, but it’s still well short of initial expectations, said another person close to Alphabet […]
Last month, Alphabet CEO Larry Page ordered Google Fiber’s chief, Craig Barratt, to halve the size of the Google Fiber team to 500 people, said the second person close to Alphabet …
The news comes at a time when Google appeared to be pushing ahead aggressively, recruiting new customers in Charlotte last month, and an FCC filing revealing that the company was seeking to test high-speed wireless Fiber services in 24 U.S. locations.
However, a recent WSJ report did state that the company was ‘rethinking’ the business.
Google parent Alphabet is rethinking its high-speed internet business after initial rollouts proved more expensive and time consuming than anticipated, a stark contrast to the fanfare that greeted its launch six years ago […] As a result Alphabet has suspended projects in San Jose, California, and Portland, Oregon.
Fast Company said that Google Fiber head Craig Barratt had been told to halve his headcount to 500 people, and reduce the costs of providing the service to one-tenth of their current rate. It notes that the business unit within which Fiber sits lost $802M within the first quarter of this year, and that $280M of this was capital expenditure on Fiber.
If you’re waiting impatiently for Fiber to reach your city, it looks like you may not be seeing the service for some time.
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