Google has 'no serious plans' to expand Fiber to UK

Google says that Fiber is unlikely to expand across the pond, no doubt disappointing those in the UK who would like access to the high-speed internet service.

Quashing rumors that the Fiber gigabit internet service would eventually find its way to UK shores, the tech giant dismissed claims that the firm has undertaken discussions with CityFibre, a builder and operator of fiber networks. Based in London, CityFibre recently secured £30 million in a secondary funding round to continue bringing fiber to cities in the UK — and apparently, Google had discussed bringing its internet service to the UK through the firm's network.

The original report said that "Google historically has always publicly said they would never build fibre outside the US. But in the background they are talking to people here in the UK and looking at projects [...] It makes sense; Britain is its biggest market outside the US."

The publication claimed that these talks quickly fell apart, mainly due to a deal already signed between CityFiber, Sky and TalkTalk to bring gigabit internet to several UK cities.

However, in a statement to Engadget, Google commented:

We have information conversations with other telecom companies all the time. But we've never had any serious planning discussions about bringing Google Fiber to Britain.

While this has cleared up rumors for a time, it is likely to leave UK broadband users disappointed — but could also be a sigh of relief for UK ISPs. Google Fiber has a connection speed "up to a hundred times faster" than standard broadband, registering up to one gigabit in upload and download speed.