Google's fiber buildout: "more bark than bite"

Google’s fiber buildout is “more bark than bite,”according to industry analyst Roger Entner. Six years after it announced it would lay a fiber network to compete with cable and telephone companies and achieve 1 gigabit speeds, Google is in just four markets with well less than 100,000 customers. Moreover, incumbent telecom companies are outpacing Google’s buildout: “Any time Google is doing three, AT&T is doing 30 cities,” Entner added.

Entner’s analysisreiterates recent findings: a MoffettNathanson reportfound in March that Google Fiber has just 53,000 pay-TV subscribers, a number that belies the fanfare the company generates. “The number of subscribers to Google's fiber service remains astonishingly low,” Craig Moffett said of the report. "This latest data is a useful barometer of just how slowly all this happens, and just how tiny Google Fiber remains in the grand scheme of things.”

Google plans to expand its fiber service. The company announced in December that it’s looking to bring fiber service to Chicago and Los Angeles, adding to the list of 9 cities where its service is currently available or being deployed.

Google Gets Beaten to the Punch by AT&T on Super-Fast Broadband (Bloomberg, Apr. 25, 2016)

Google Fiber has only 53k video customers (Speed Matters, Mar. 4, 2016)

Google’s Fiber deployment: “slow and limited” (Speed Matters, Oct. 19, 2015)

AT&T, Google announce fiber expansion (Speed Matters, Dec. 9, 2015)