Google says we're so sorry Kansas City and yanks fiber

21 March 2017 by Steve Blum
, , ,

Grab the Google rabbit by the tail and face the situation.

Google’s vague pledge to complete fiber networks it was already building is worthless, it turns out. According to a story by KHSB-TV, residents of some Kansas City neighborhoods who signed up for service but never received it are getting cancellation notices from Google…

Hello,

Thanks for signing up for Google Fiber. Although we’ve been working hard to bring you service, we’re unable to build our network to connect your home or business at this time.

Unfortunately, that means we’ll need to cancel your Fiber account. If you paid a deposit, we’ll refund your deposit amount to your original form of payment in the next two weeks.

If you signed up for our Fiber 1000 or Fiber 1000 + TV plan, your additional 1TB of Google Drive storage will be removed and your storage limits will be set back to the free levels. Everything you have in Google Drive, Google+ Photos and Gmail will still remain intact and be accessible, but you won’t be able to create or add anything new over the free storage limit.

We’re so sorry for any inconvenience we’ve caused you. And we’d like to keep you updated on our progress if we can bring you Fiber in the future. If you would like to be contacted, please sign up for address updates again by checking your address at google.com/fiber/kansascity.

The Google Fiber team

According to a story by Karol Bode in DSL Reports, the company’s PR people are insisting that “Google Fiber loves Kansas City and is here to stay” and pointed to other locations in the metro area where construction continues.

I’d love to speculate about what Google Fiber is really up to, but the likeliest explanation is that it doesn’t know itself. It’s pushing microtrenching in Austin and jumping into the fixed wireless Internet service business in the San Francisco Bay Area. Or at least it will if the California Public Utilities Commission approves its purchase of Webpass on Thursday.