Google Fiber said it is pleased with the progress it’s making on the TV front and that it is continuing to expand into multiple cities in response to an analyst report suggesting that the division is pulling back the reins because it’s not getting the desired results.
“We’re very pleased with Google Fiber TV sign-ups, which have been very strong,” a Google Fiber spokesperson said, in a statement. “In the past two months since this filing we opened new cities including Atlanta, Charlotte and Salt Lake City, so we expect the growth to continue.”
The statement comes amid a research note issued Thursday from MoffetNathanson analyst Craig Moffett citing new data from the U.S. Copyright Office that Google Fiber ended Q2 2016 with 68,715 video subscribers, up 66.6% year-over-year. “For those keeping score at home, that’s a little less than seven one hundredths of one percent of the U.S. video market,” Moffett noted.
Those figures don’t include Google Fiber’s broadband subscribers, which are certainly much higher. Moffett estimated that Google Fiber had about 453,000 broadband customers by the end of June 2016.
The latest batch of U.S. Copyright Office data also does not account for any progress that Google Fiber has made in other markets that have recently gone live with the provider’s mix of broadband, phone and video services, including Atlanta, Charlotte and Salt Lake City.
In the meantime, Google Fiber has been waging a battle to speed up its ability to deploy. Last week, the city of Nashville awarded preliminary approval of so called “one touch make ready" utility pole reform rules that could help Google Fiber, which had argued that of the 88,000 poles required to attach Google Fiber for its rollout there, more than 44,000 will require make ready work, but a mere 33 of them have been made ready.
