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Comment by mabbo | Hacker News Reader

Because they stopped. Because they made it sound like everyone was getting Gigabit internet by 2018 and then just... didn't do anything. They had first movers advantage and were offering something incredible.

And they gave up.

It's nice that they're getting back at it now, but come on, where have you been all these years?

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Frankly, I had assumed Google stopped putting any effort into GF, like so many other projects they start.

They didn't so much stop as they got stopped - incumbents fought hard to keep Google Fiber out and they won.

Google couldn’t wire up their own back yard! You think Comcast has more lobbying clout in Silicon Valley than Google? Google rejected proposals from places like Baltimore and LA that were trying to kick out Comcast and asking Google to wire them up.

In Louisville (KY) Google Fiber was handed every advantage they needed on a silver platter (One Touch Make Ready) versus the incumbents. Decided to "experiment" and did the absolute dumbest thing possible ("micro-trenching" in a state with an active climate and this thing called "Winter"), failed incredibly hard, and just shut down the network, cut and ran rather than live up to any promises they made to the city. (Leaving the bills for things like giant potholes to the City and its taxpayers.)

That wasn't incumbents fighting them. They did that to themselves.

I was always surprised that even living in Silicon Valley I was never able to get fiber! I’m near San Francisco now and it still isn’t an option to my home.

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