What just happened? Admitting defeat is never easy but in this instance, it was the right move. Google said it would have had to rebuild its entire network in Louisville to fix an issue created by an experimental trench system and that simply wasn't feasible.
Google's fiber rollout is coming to a premature end in one major market.
The search giant on Thursday announced that it is saying goodbye to Louisville, a city that joined Google's fiber family in 2017. It's nothing personal - according to a post on the official fiber blog, Google trialed a lot of new things in Louisville including a different type of construction method.
Specifically, Google laid its fiber lines in much shallower trenches than they've done elsewhere. It was an experiment that unfortunately failed, resulting in service disruptions for customers.
In short, the experimental infrastructure didn't live up to Google's standards. To fix the issue, they would have to rebuild the entire fiber network in Louisville and that's "just not the right business decision."
Google will take its network offline on April 15. For the next two months, the search giant is waiving all service fees for impacted customers.
The silver lining is that Google has learned a lot from its failed experiment, knowledge that has already helped to improve service in other fiber cities.
Lead image via bluebay via Shutterstock. Second image via WDRB.com