ISP roundup: Google mulls fiber-less Fiber, America goes Wow, Comcast still terrible

A flurry of news from internet service providers (ISPs) in the US has picked up what is normally a slow summer season.

According to a report from the San Jose Mercury News, Google's planned rollout of its Fiber broadband service in the Bay Area has hit a snag, as the Chocolate Factory is considering a change of course.

The paper says local officials in both Palo Alto and Mountain View have been told that the installation of new fiber cable lines has been put on hold as Google examines a plan to instead go with a service that could rely more on wireless connections.

Google brought on such a system earlier this year with its acquisition of Webpass, which already operates a limited service in parts of the San Francisco bay area.

Meanwhile, another emerging ISP is making big promises of its own in hopes of getting more US cities to sign up. Wow Internet, Cable & Phone says [PDF] it will soon be upgrading its internet service to provide gigabit data speeds in five US cities by the end of the year.

The rollout will begin in Huntsville and Auburn, Alabama; Evansville, Indiana; Knoxville, Tennessee; and Grosse Pointe Shores, Michigan, before being expanded to others markets. Wow says it operates its internet service in 20 different US markets, mostly in the midwest and southeastern parts of the country.

Hopefully Wow can provide the speeds it advertises, otherwise the ISP might find itself in a situation similar to the one currently facing Comcast. The US cable giant has been challenged in court by Verizon for claiming its internet service to be the "fastest" in America for home users.

Now, it appears the Better Business Bureau's National Advertising Division has sided against Comcast, telling the cable giant it should stop making those claims in its marketing campaigns.

Comcast reportedly plans to appeal the ruling. ®