Google Fiber wants to go completely wireless

In an effort to cut costs and speed up the launch of its services, Google Fiber is also leasing existing fiber or asking cities or power companies to build the networks, the Journal reported. The project is on hold in San Jose, Calif., and Portland, Ore., which are considered “potential fiber cities”, according to Google Fiber’s website.

Google Fiber could be looking at a significant change of direction, as it steps back to rethink its rollout plans in several metropolitan areas such as Chicago, Dallas and Los Angeles.

Shares of Alphabet (GOOGL) were up in pre-market trading on Monday as the Google parent company plans to reconsider installing wired connections of its Google Fiber service and is instead exploring wireless technology. A Google Fiber spokesperson told the newspaper that talks with these cities, and others in the area…

Alphabet’s internet provider, Google Fiber, has spent hundreds of millions dollars digging up streets and laying fiber-optic cables in a handful of cities to offer web connections roughly 30 times faster than the US average.

Reston is among 12 test markets nationwide selected Google to test its new high-speed wireless broadband.

In addition to laying its own cables, Google has been working with some cities and municipalities to get fiber laid at the same time as electric cables when new houses are built, and it could bring fiber to existing locations faster by leasing fiber networks that are now underused. It’s a costly endeavor to both lay fiber-optic pipelines where needed and connect them to homes and businesses, the latter of which is known as the “last mile” of an Internet connection.

Charles Barr, president of Webpass, said at the time of the acquisition that the company would remain focused “primarily on point-to-point wireless”, a simple network architecture that can range from connecting two locations just a few hundred metres apart to up to tens of miles away from each other.

Google will likely be building out fiber optic cable networks to a neighborhood and then use wireless technology such as the one developed by Webpass for the distribution of the service to customers.