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JOSEPH GERTH

Happy Valentine's Day, Google Fiber. Go choke on your chocolate

Joseph Gerth
Courier Journal

Do you get the feeling Google Fiber never really loved us to begin with? 

Yeah, we had a brief fling with the low-cost internet access. Dinner and a couple of movies. Maybe even a concert and a long weekend together.

Binging on Netflix on the couch. 

And now, she's broken up with us. Via social media. Complete with a crying emoji. 

At least the folks at Google Fiber didn't give us the old, "It's not you, it's me" line.

They really didn't give us anything. Except, in the end, tiny ruts in our streets.

They haven't told us what's really behind the company's decision to dump us — and just before Valentine's Day — beyond some obtuse vagaries about "technical challenges" and other corporate mumbo jumbo. 

Background:Google Fiber made 'tough decision' to pull service from Louisville

Give it to us straight. We can take it. 

Don't you owe us that much? 

Why are you leaving us with Spectrum and AT&T — only to be used again and again as they separate us from our money but really don't care about us?

We've heard their come-ons before about their cable internet access and then DSL and their buffering, buffering, buffering, buffering, buffering. Bunch of gold diggers.

And now AT&T has no reason to speed up construction of its fiber optic network here. Or cut prices to compete.

What did we do to deserve this? 

We let you come in here and tear up our streets, and you reward us by tearing out our hearts? 

Sure, we had our problems. 

The city's parking Nazis didn't help when they went in and ticketed people without warning for blocking your access to curbs in the Highlands. It made you look like the demanding, jealous type. 

Read more:As Google Fiber pulls the plug, Louisville is the jilted suitor

And you weren't perfect either, what with your routing out our streets, stuffing the little trenches with fiber optic wires and then filling them in with some rubberized material that didn't withstand cold winters and hot summers. 

I think we can agree that neither of us were without fault. 

And we understand. Kansas City, Missouri, was your first. And who wouldn't be enamored by sunny Southern California, the hipness of Austin, Texas, or even the North Carolina Research Triangle?

But I mean, really, what does Provo, Utah, and Huntsville, Alabama, have that we don't have? Why can you go forward with inexpensive high-speed internet there and not here? 

How come you can build 6-inch deep micro-trenches in those cities — which seem to work — but only 2-inch deep trenches here? Apparently, size does matter. 

But what really hurts is you never told us this wasn't working and never gave us the chance to get it right.

Related:What Google Fiber’s exit means for Louisville internet and your wallet

And in the end, you didn't have the confidence in us to say that while the technology you tried here didn't work, that you were committed to us. You refused to change gears and do here what you have done in every city where you have installed Google Fiber. 

Every other city. 

What makes doing that the "right business decision" in San Antonio but the wrong business decision here? 

To be honest, we don't give a rat's butt that "lessons we’ve learned in Louisville have already made us better in our other Google Fiber cities," as you said in your perky little "Dear John" blog post. 

We feel used. 

Happy Valentine's Day.

We hope you choke on your Whitman's Sampler. 

Google Fiber:Louisville leaders 'taken by surprise' by departure

Joseph Gerth's opinion column runs on most Sundays and at various times throughout the week. He can be reached at 502-582-4702 or by email at jgerth@courierjournal.com. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/josephg.