Ultimate Proof That Google Fiber Is Not Serious

[SteelCrysis]

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Portl...use-138214

Earlier this week Google Fiber announced that the company would be "pausing" its deployment to a number of "potential" Google Fiber markets as it considers a pivot to wireless. While Google will continue to expand existing deployments and work on many of its just-started fiber launches, more than half a dozen cities that were in various stages of talks with Google on an eventual launch will be out of luck, and any existing Google Fiber employees in those cities laid off.

As it stands, those cities include Portland, Chicago, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, Oklahoma City, Phoenix, San Diego, San Jose, and Tampa.

Of those, Portland likely is the most annoyed by Google Fiber's sudden about face, given it had been jumping through hoops for several years to try and bring the ultra-fast service to the city.

At Google's behest, Portland in 2014 reconfigured a city ordinance that banned the placing of fiber cabinets in city rights of way. The state meanwhile, after a few misfires, crafted a law designed to provide Google Fiber with several tax breaks for deploying gigabit service.

Utility pole attachment deals had already been struck with Portland General Electric and Pacific Power, and the city had been working hard for several years at laying the groundwork for the Google Fiber "huts" needed around the city to power the service.

That's not to say some variant of Google-branded broadband won't someday arrive in Portland, but it's likely that this service won't be fiber, and much of the existing work will have been wasted. Google has filed applications with the FCC to conduct trials in the 71-76 GHz and 81-86 GHz millimeter wave bands, and is also conducting a variety of different tests in the 3.5 GHz band, the 5.8 GHz band and the 24 GHz band, and hopes to offer speeds up to a gig...eventually.

Until then, Portland's left standing at the broadband competition altar after Google Fiber executives got cold feet about continued expansion of the company's fiber optic network.