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Comment by shmerl | Hacker News Reader

Slowing down Google Fiber doesn't sound good to me, while it probably comes from the same idea.

I think the idea behind the GFiber shrinkage is that WebPass achieves the same end result, but doesn't require the extremely time-consuming, expensive, and risky negotiation for right-of-ways on the poles or digging permits that GFiber would've. If so, then economically at least Webpass is the way to go. At least, that's the theory. It'd suck to scale back GFiber and then find out that Webpass wouldn't actually scale to a nationwide roll-out either.

I'm sad to see GFiber go as well, I worked on it right before its launch and was really hoping I'd get to try it out as a customer.

Wireless does not achieve the same result. It has a lot of downsides and more limited application.

I think that is political.

What kind of politics do think it is?

The kind that grants a monopoly to ISPs which allows Avg. Americans to have 1-2 choices for internet >10mbs. There was a 1 Trillion or greater global roll up in the last 2ish years.

I think that google was likely meeting friction somewhere in the process, prob everywhere. I am sure they also got pushback internally but I figure launching in major cities w/ 10-20 year better cable would be profitable. Especially since that industry is insanely profitable

I thought their whole point was to break through such crony politics, to prove the point. But I guess they don't have the guts for it.

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