After initial rollouts proved more time-consuming and expensive than anticipated, Google parent Alphabet Inc. is rethinking its Google Fiber high-speed internet business.
Google Fiber As A Business Model
According to The Wall Street Journal, the Google Fiber division was created six years ago and it has already spent hundreds and millions of dollars in trying to offer high-speed internet to big American cities across the nation. Google Fiber aims to provide fiber-to-the-premises service in the U.S., including cable television and broadband internet.
Google Fiber was proposed initially as just an experimental project. However, at the end of the year 2012, Google announced it as a viable business model.
The Kansas City metropolitan area was the first to benefit from Google Fiber's service. Expansions to Austin, Texas and Provo, Utah, have been announced in April 2013. In the years 2014 and 2015, Google Fiber announced subsequent expansions to Nashville, Raleigh-Durham, Atlanta, Charlotte, San Antonio and Salt Lake City.
Google Fiber Wireless Internet
Despite the fact that expenses were higher than anticipated, Google Fiber still aims to provide high-speed internet to the masses. According to The Christian Science Monitor, today the fastest internet connections are those working on wire lines. However, Google Fiber is working on designing technologies that will change that.
According to Google Fiber's official website. the company aims to offer Internet speeds up to 100 times faster than a typical broadband connection, but the installation of the underground cables is both time-consuming and expensive. Faced with this challenge, Google's engineers are attempting to transcend the physical barriers by testing out wireless Internet.
In an August 5 filing with the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Alphabet Inc., Google's parent company, announced its plans to test cheap wireless high-speed internet in 24 American metropolitan areas. According to Time, it seems that Google Fiber intends to extend its ultra-fast internet service to new customers and challenge its competitors to match its low prices and high speeds.
