Google Fiber cancels customer accounts in flagship Kansas City

Kansas City, MO has always been a flagship city of Google Fiber. It’s the place Google points to as a great success, the place where they built a fancy office and hired brand ambassadors. But some residents have been waiting for years for Google Fiber to install service at their home, and now it seems those without service are out of luck.

KSHB 41, a local news station in Kansas City, reports that residents who signed up for the service are receiving account cancellations from Google Fiber. The emails are short on specifics, reading that the company is “unable to build our network to connect your home or business at this time.” Google Fiber wouldn’t comment on how many cancellations it sent out, but KSHB reported that there could be as many as 2,700..

“We figured this was going to be a slam dunk, this would be easy for them to do the install,” said one Kansas City resident who waited five months for his installation, which was cancelled. “It’s getting to feel more to me like a corporate decision to start to withdraw from Kansas City.”

In Oct. 2016, Google Fiber announced that it would no longer be expanding its service to new cities, but still operating in cities where it already established a presence, including Kansas City. Now, it seems, Google Fiber is curbing its service in those cities as well, the latest signal that the over-hyped Silicon Valley experiment in network construction is over.

Links:

Residents question Google Fiber's future in Kansas City area after installations canceled (KSHB 41, Mar. 17, 2017)

Google Fiber halts build-out (Speed Matters, Oct. 27, 2016)