While Chattanooga touts itself as “the Gig City” for its high-speed internet links provided by its municipal power utility, another major provider of gig service in other cities is rethinking its approach to how it delivers faster web connections.
Google parent Alphabet Inc. is rethinking its fiber optic-based internet business and may now push for wireless technology for internet connections, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The newspaper reported Monday that Google Fiber cities and high-speed internet service proved more expensive than originally forecast.
“Alphabet’s internet provider, Google Fiber, has spent hundreds of millions digging up streets to lay fiber-optic cables in a handful of cities through which it offered residents web connections nearly 30 times faster than the U.S. average,” reporter Jack Nicas said Monday in a front-page report in the Wall Street Journal. “Now the company is hoping to use wireless technology to connect homes, rather than cables, in about a dozen new metro areas.”
Google Fiber installed gig service in parts of Kansas City, Kan.; Provo, Utah; Austin, Tex.; Nashville, Atlanta and Charlotte, N.C.