Google Fiber to Louisville

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

Google Fiber is pulling the plug on Louisville. Apparently installation has been largely unsuccessful. Their initial infrastructure plan had included the sharing of utility poles that were already in place throughout the city, as proposed by the City of Louisville when they were originally negotiating with Google Fiber to bring their internet service to Louisville. However, AT&T and Spectrum have both challenged the shared utility pole plan, due to their pre-existing contracts with Louisville and LG&E to use the poles. After a court battle, it was decided that Louisville was legally entitled to allow Google's use of the poles, but both Spectrum and AT&T threatened to remove their own service in areas of the city where Google had not planned to ever offer service.

 

After a long bout of wheeling and dealing, Google opted to utilize a "shallow trenching" method to install their lines, where they would cut a 2" deep, 1" wide slot into the edge of roadway pavement, install the line, and then cover the line over with a rubberized sealant. The trenching method has been utilized successfully in warmer climate cities in the US, but the weather conditions in Louisville has proven very troublesome for Google, and their fiber lines have continually made their way out of trenches when the sealant failed.

 

After multiple attempts to make the shallow trenching work in the past year and a half, Google has announced that they will be pulling their service out of Louisville, effective April 15, 2019. Current Google Fiber customers in Louisville will not be charged for their final 2 months of service.

[tcjkbt]

Google is supposed to restore the streets to the condition they were in before the installation, per the contract. We'll see what one of the richest companies in the world is going to do. The 2" depth seemed too shallow to me if for no other reason than when the street is repaved the pavement might get milled to that depth, thus damaging the lines. It was installed our street and in our neighborhood so I have a front row view of it every day.