Google Fiber Back From The Dead, Unveils 20 Gbps Fiber

When Google Fiber launched back in 2010, it was heralded as a game changer for the broadband industry. Google Fiber, we were told, would revolutionize the industry by taking Silicon Valley money and disrupting the viciously uncompetitive and anti-competitive U.S. telecom sector.

Initially, things worked out well; cities tripped over themselves offering all manner of perks to the company in the hopes of breaking free from the broadband duopoly logjam. Google got endless free press for doing something truly disruptive. And in markets where Google Fiber was deployed, prices dropped thanks to this added competition (fancy that!).

The fun didn’t last.

In 2016, a new era of Alphabet execs began getting cold feet about the high costs and slow returns of the project, and effectively mothballed the entire thing — without admitting that’s what they were doing. The company blew through several CEOs in just a few months, laid off hundreds of employees, froze any real expansion, and cancelled countless installations for users who had been waiting years.

But recently, things have started to shift once again, with Google Fiber (now named “GFiber”) pushing a bunch of new (but still modest) expansion plans across Iowa, Arizona, Utah, and several other states. And the company recently announced it would also be bringing a new 20 Gbps fiber tier to market, albeit in limited areas:

“We’ll be sharing more details on this new product offering over the next few months. As a GFiber Labs project, this service will initially be available as an early access offering to a small group of GFiber customers in select areas.”

On one hand, a 20 Gbps service tier few people can actually get remains more marketing than substance. That said, it’s still a welcome pivot for a disruptive player in the broadband space that, like so many competitors in U.S. telecom, seemed on the verge of collapse not that long ago.