Google Fiber will cut staff in half to 500

Google Fiber was announced in February 2010, and its first deployment went live in Kansas City in November 2012. Google hoped to get 5 million customers within five years, but by the end of 2014, Google Fiber had just 200,000 Internet subscribers. While an updated number hasn’t been revealed, “it’s still well short of initial expectations,” The Information report said. The cost of installing fiber in each city has also exceeded Alphabet’s expectations, the report said.

During a recent earnings call (transcript), Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat said Google still sees Google Fiber as “a huge market opportunity” but that it’s “being thoughtful and deliberate in [its] execution path.”

SOURCES – ABC, Arstechnica, The Information