Summary: Google tried to "nano"-trench Louisville, KY using 2" deep trenches (by comparison micro-trenching is typically 6" deep) then use epoxy to cover the trench. The epoxy didn't stand up to tires. Google tried to replace the epoxy with asphalt but that damaged the fiber. Google determined at that point that nano-trenching wouldn't work and didn't want to spend additional money to remedy the situation, so they abandoned Louisville.<p>My story in NC:<p>Aug 2015: Google Fiber sent me a T-shirt promising Fiber would be available soon!<p>Jan 2017: AT&T Fiber available to my address. $70/month for 1 Gbps.<p>Aug 2023: Google Fiber finally available at my address. $70/mo for 1 Gbps, $100/mo for 2 Gbps.<p>So yeah, Google got AT&T to get off their butts, but it took Google 8 years to get to my address. Meanwhile, AT&T is still $70/mo, includes HBO (er, Max), and is reliable, so I don't really have any reason to switch.<p>That said, I'm considering having GF installed anyway as long as they're in the neighborhood and running dual-WAN for a while. I can always cancel it and then my home is setup for both ISPs.
I had Google Fiber installed in my crapbox Barton Hills duplex (Austin, Texas)... I want to say 2015? It was cool, a then-neat-gimmick that I had to wait years for installation.<p>I now have Chattanooga's public utility fiber, provided by the local electricity provider (EPBfiber, part of the electric fiber board) to EVERY SINGLE ADDRESS SERVICED BY THE POWER COMPANY.<p>The latter scenario is SO MUCH BETTER that the state of Tennessee effectively has banned [still cat-and-mouse] other cities from implementing Chattanooga's beloved solution to broadband infrastructure AS A RIGHT. I do not even know why Comcast/AT&T/etc. even send out advertisements when nobody in their right mind would choose anything other than the city-provided publicly-subsidized internet.<p><3 from Not Your Electrician
Related article from the time: <a href="https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/04/google-fiber-exits-louisville-pays-city-3-8m-to-clean-up-the-mess-it-left/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/04/googl...</a><p>Google paid the city $3.8M to the city, for the city to clean up the mess themselves.
Summary: Google isn't really a business, it's a confederation of dilettante, temporary experiments only interested in the paths of least resistance.<p>I'm curious if anyone knows why there is a GF dead zone in Austin downtown except for the Google offices and a few other buildings. It's bounded by N Lamar to the west, W 30th to the north, I-35 to the east, and the Colorado to the south. Taxes? Permit $? Laziness?<p>2 Gbps GF ATX customer here. It takes under a week to activate. They have 5 Gbps now but I don't see the point. $70 1 G, $100 2 G, and $125 5 G.<p>If GF goes under, there's always Spectrum who sends me 5 junkmail ads a week for their overpriced offering.
This is always quite an interesting dynamic in local government. It's the nature of the US that there's always going to be some mid sized city run by idiots and big corporations can just shop around to see who they can take advantage of. If you strip away the brand name this is just a city agreeing to install an incredibly sub-standard local utility. But it's cheaper! Yes, because it's bad! All the other people digging deep trenches aren't idiots, they're building out the infrastructure to a spec where it will actually be maintainable.
Anyone who knows outside plant fiber could have told you this was a recipe for disaster. The only way to "micro trench" fiber that will last is using a big-ass diamond bladed wet saw, like 10 to 12 inches down and then fill the slot with proper concrete/pavement grouting. NOT two inches down and filled with black rubber stuff.<p>Vancouver BC has an extensive microtrenched fiber network in the busy downtown core, crossing many roads, and it's relatively trouble free.
Why would you not put the cable under the ground? I understand that this is more cost effective.. in the SHORT RUN. Currently (I am Dutch) Odido (former T-Mobile) is planning to ship fiber in my town (23.000 people) where it will take 2 to 3 month before it is at my door. Every cable goes under the ground. I even know that in the Netherlands the ones that dig cables have an app that tells them what they can find under the ground at what level and what type. They are also required to tell where they are laying the cable, how deep and what type of cable it is. We might have a lot of weird rules but this for sure it better than this...
And so the man who does not make works is brain lost his place?<p>“It is such a shame to think that we wouldn’t be having any of this conversation if they would have dug their little holes two inches
deeper,” Coan said.<p>Alphabet the Clown compagny!