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Google's Larry Page Got Bored of Disrupting the Telecom Sector

Last month, news emerged that Google Fiber was freezing fiber deployment to several potential cities to consider a pivot to wireless. That shift included some modest layoffs, and was made in part due to rumored frustration among some Google executives with the slow pace of construction and subscriber uptake. Estimates suggest that Google Fiber now has somewhere around 500,000 broadband customers, but significantly less traditional television subscribers more than five years after launch.

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Of course Google execs shouldn't have been surprised; building fiber networks from scratch in a country where cities have aging, poorly mapped infrastructure and incumbents like AT&T and Comcast all but own many state and federal politicians was never going to be easy.

Bloomberg offers up a few more details in a report on the ongoing shift at Google, noting that Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat is attempting to bring some fiscal "focus" to the Silicon Valley giant. The report indicates that while Google co-founder Sergey Brin was apparently still bullish on disrupting the telecom industry, Larry Page was supposedly "frustrated" by Google Fiber's lack of progress:

quote:
But seeking permits to lay fiber is time-consuming and digging holes expensive. Former employees say Page became frustrated with Fiber’s lack of progress. “Larry just thought it wasn’t game-changing enough,” says a former Page adviser. “There’s no flying-saucer shit in laying fiber.” In October the company announced that it was dismissing around 130 staffers and halting the expansion of the fiber network in eight cities. Barratt resigned that same day.
Fiber may not be "flying saucer shit," but the added competition to unliked industry stalwarts like AT&T and Verizon excited consumers and notably helped the sector. While Google Fiber still only has a relatively modest footprint, in those areas incumbent providers have been forced to provide gigabit speeds at prices that would have been previously unheard of. And the very existence of Google Fiber began a nationwide conversation about the sorry state of broadband competition, driving ad-hoc solutions around the country.

According to Bloomberg, many at Google are frustrated by Page's impatience, and say he's bowing to investors and shifting Google into just another company eager to cut corners at every opportunity:

quote:
These changes have prompted many in Silicon Valley to accuse Page of bowing to investor pressure—in other words, of acting like a CEO of a normal, publicly traded company. “It definitely looks like a more conventional company,” says Randy Komisar, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. “It’s the classic GE conglomerate model,” he says, comparing Page to Jack Welch, famous for turning General Electric around by shedding research divisions and slashing costs.
That said, Google Fiber continues traditional fiber deployment in all of its original launch markets (Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Kansas City, Nashville, Provo, Salt Lake City, and The Triangle in North Carolina) as well as markets that were promised fiber connectivity (Huntsville, Alabama; San Antonio, Texas; Louisville, Kentucky; and Irvine, California). And the company remains bullish that next-generation wireless will play a starring role moving forward, having 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.

That said, Page's apparent disdain for disrupting the broadband sector because it's hard and takes time should give any Google Fiber supporter pause. It's not outside of the realm of possibility that Google gets tired of meddling in the telecom space entirely and sells off the entire project at some point, especially with an incoming administration that appears to be putting regulatory oversight of nation's entrenched duopolies on the far back burner.

Readers place your bets: does Google Fiber go on to great things, or does it get sold off and become another sad footnote in the never-ending quest to bring meaningful competition to the US broadband market?

Most recommended from 69 comments



TIGERON
join:2008-03-11
Boston, MA
Motorola MG7550

21 recommendations

TIGERON

Member

Google Fiber will be sold off

"It's not outside of the realm of possibility that Google gets tired of meddling in the telecom space entirely and sells off the entire project at some point, especially with an incoming administration that appears to be putting regulatory oversight of nation's entrenched duopolies on the far back burner.

Readers place your bets: does Google Fiber go on to great things, or does it get sold off and become another sad footnote in the never-ending quest to bring meaningful competition to the US broadband market?"

Whom the buyer will be remains to be seen.

What do you expect Karl?? Google has a history of quickly abandoning projects that do not turn a quick profit. You shouldn't be surprised. It's one reason why even the Android project has been forked into other renegade open source projects. As long as companies give in to the short term greed of wall street nothing meaningful for the good of this country will come.

Anti_Cyrix
Premium Member
join:2003-03-06
Sacramento, CA

20 recommendations

Anti_Cyrix

Premium Member

Competition is a good thing

If only Larry would stay the course!

Wireless, while cheaper, isn't flying saucer shit either.

GlennLouEarl
3 brothers, 1 gone
Premium Member
join:2002-11-17
Richmond, VA

16 recommendations

GlennLouEarl

Premium Member

The only thing Page has done much of lately

is demonstrate his lack of vision.

Well, getting older is tiring.

karpodiem
Hail to The Victors
Premium Member
join:2008-05-20
Troy, MI

16 recommendations

karpodiem

Premium Member

Google will look back on these years as a wasted opportunity

When at&t, comcast, and verizon begin zero rating vast pools of content in the years to come, the rest of the long tail net (including ads) will draw from a finite bucket of 'non content portal' data allowance, that will increasingly become smaller and smaller in size.

Fiber is king, always have and always will be. Until it hits Google in the pocketbook, to the tune of a couple hundred million, they won't feel it. When they finally do, years will have gone by that would offered them an opportunity to build permanent infrastructure to guard against this. Instead, they'll be paying troll toll feeds to the ISPs, year over year.
rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO

11 recommendations

rradina

Member

Screen Laden w/Coffee Spit

said by article :

..."Larry just thought it wasn't game-changing enough," says a former Page adviser. "There's no flying-saucer shit in laying fiber...."

Busted out laughing when I read this...
shanghaista
join:2014-08-03
Canton, MA

10 recommendations

shanghaista

Member

Investor Pressure

Investor pressure?! What happened to those Class B shares?

If a giant has as much cash and less accountability with shareholders (in terms of voting ownership) as Google does and STILL can't get it done, tells you how much red tape and garbage the incumbents have lined up to hamstring the process.

This is one of the things that's giving Google positive brand recognition, one would think Larry would be higher on it. Guess babysitter Porat's really up his @$$ about the lack of ROI. At least Bryn is still an advocate.

But yes, I do believe it will get sold off at some point. It will most likely go to a Venture Capital group who's trying to break into telecom.
sd70mac
Premium Member
join:2015-10-18
Woodstock, IL
Netgear CM1200
Linksys WRT1900ACS
Ooma Telo

7 recommendations

sd70mac

Premium Member

My thoughts on Google Fiber

I think they will eventually come back to single family homes, with a mixed 5G/Fiber setup, and in will continue to expand their use of full Fiber To The Premises for MDUs, as their subsidiary Webpass is already doing. If they do sell at all, it will be to RCN, whom they already own a stake in, because capped, slow internet is an existential threat to Google/Alphabet's core product lines of search, online storage, email, video, and other web-based services.
tmc8080
join:2004-04-24
Brooklyn, NY

5 recommendations

tmc8080

Member

Forget telecom

The goal posts are kind of wrong. This wasn't just about picking a fight with telcos which decided to NOT upgrade their infrastructure nor ramp up speeds and provide cablecos much needed competition. This WAS supposed to be about the next phase of VIDEO and ultra wide high speed internet access. The kind formerly only found in fortune 500 corporations and military entities a decade ago.

It's not surprising that two issues were at play.. one being the pricing. $70 for gigabit two years ago was over the limit of where consumers would consider affordable even if it was substantially below the market rates for such bandwidth, if it was on offer at all. Next there were fewer killer apps and hardware taking advantage of gigabit broadband. Fewer 4k tv sets, fewer upgraded gaming consoles, almost NO 4k or even high def phones in 2014.
wkm001
join:2009-12-14

3 recommendations

wkm001

Member

Money

While laying fiber is better for the public and country, it might not be in the best interest of Google's bottom line.

Google makes money when more people use the internet, or when people use the internet more. If this wasn't accomplishing that goal, then it didn't make sense for Google.

This 5G thing must be legit. Verizon has bet it's entire business on it and Google has given up running fiber. Hopefully lots of players will be in the 5G business! Along with several well priced over the top television providers.
decifal7
join:2007-03-10
Bon Aqua, TN

3 recommendations

decifal7

Member

/sigh

/sigh, the nazi won

neofate
Caveat Depascor
Premium Member
join:2003-11-11
Birmingham, AL

2 recommendations

neofate

Premium Member

Google is / has made a mistake.

It's a mistake to stop their efforts on GPON. Plain and simple. The impact they had and continue to have with no end in sight is appreciated. However, Google is going to wish it stayed with GPON and not backed out when the going go tough and it wasn't magical 1000 percent growth -- in 5 - 10 years when a lot of fiber is going to exist out there with D3.1 duplex and Google blew its opportunity to have it's own significant Fiber network. Google will live but will regret the 'quitting'.

Will they sell -- Google general does sell projects it deems didn't pan out.. though Fiber and fiber like speeds are and will continue to pick up traction so who knows - they may elect to keep it on board and revisit their sub base/network several years down the road. I say if they sell it will happen sooner than later.

buzz_4_20
join:2003-09-20
Dover, NH

2 recommendations

buzz_4_20

Member

If they were tired of slow uptake.

Why didn't they build networks in underserved areas, not cities that already had competition.
WhatNow
Premium Member
join:2009-05-06
Charlotte, NC

2 recommendations

WhatNow

Premium Member

Gets sold off

Google took to much time to start their projects and move forward. At least in North Carolina, Charlotte and Raleigh Triangle, it gave AT&T time to get their ducks in a row and have a big lead in their fiber projects. They have now announced they were going for complete fiber coverage. Instead of GF having most of the fiber customers to themselves they will now have to compete for the customers with many of the customers already on AT&T fiber for a year or longer.