Google is cutting its losses with its high speed internet service to restrategize and reduce expenses. It will continue serving its current fiber cities and will complete the buildout of its fiber service where construction has already begun, but it will close offices and end all future fiber plans.
With this announcement, the head of Google’s fiber division, Craig Barratt, announced his resignation. “As for me personally, it’s been quite a journey over the past few years, taking a broad-based set of projects and initiatives and growing a focused business that is on a strong trajectory. And I’ve decided this is the right juncture to step aside from my CEO role. Larry has asked me to continue as an advisor, so I’ll still be around.”
Google currently has fiber in 9 locations; Kansas City MO, Kansas City, KS, Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Nashville, Provo, Salt Lake City and The Triangle area of North Carolina. They list 4 cities as upcoming; Huntsville, AL, Irvine, CA, Louisville, and San Antonio. It’s likely that none of these cities will see their Google fiber dreams fulfilled.
Another big disappointment is in store for cities that were listed as potential fiber cities by Google including Tampa, Jacksonville, Chicago, Dallas, Oklahoma City, Phoenix, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Jose and probably Louisville. Google plans to close offices in all of these cities and layoff personnel.
“In terms of our existing footprint, in the cities where we’ve launched or are under construction, our work will continue,” said Barratt. “For most of our potential Fiber cities – those where we’ve been in exploratory discussions – we’re going to pause our operations and offices while we refine our approaches. We’re ever grateful to these cities for their ongoing partnership and patience, and we’re confident we’ll have an opportunity to resume our partnership discussions once we’ve advanced our technologies and solutions.”
Barratt added that they will be reducing their employee base in cities that are in an “exploratory stage.”
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