High-Speed Google Fiber Might Be Coming To Chicago, Without The Fiber

By Gwendolyn Purdom in News on Aug 18, 2016 4:32PM

Months after we reported that Google was considering Chicago to be one of several test cities for its super-fast Fiber network, it sounds like the tech giant may be ditching the actual fiber-optic cables for wireless connections. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Google's parent company, Alphabet, is reconsidering plans to dig up streets to lay fiber-optic cable in about a dozen cities after projects in San Jose, California and Portland, Oregon didn't work out.

Google announced Chicago as a potential Fiber site in December because of our growing tech scene and big population, inviting city officials to help the company locate possible Google Fiber huts around the area. Now, the Journal says, the project is proving to be too expensive and time-consuming to expand the way in the way it was originally envisioned. Instead, Chicago and several other cities including Los Angeles and Dallas could get the service via wireless technology instead of cables. More than 1,000 cities reportedly applied for the service after Google announced it in 2010 and in the time since, it has only begun service in six metro areas.

Google has built a Chicago presence in other ways in recent years, opening its massive local headquarters in the West Loop in December, with both Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Gov. Bruce Rauner making cameos at the office ribbon-cutting ceremony. We'll see if the chumminess continues as the company navigates a new fiber plan.