John Pletz

Google is hitting the pause button, rethinking the scale of its ambitious plans to become a major provider of low-cost high-speed internet as it weighs options beyond laying expensive fiber-optic cables. The company said it would “pause” rollouts of Google Fiber to new cities. But it will provide some service in Chicago—one of the cities that was on the bubble—because it's served by Webpass, a wireless broadband provider that Google acquired in June. “In Chicago, Google Fiber and Webpass will work together to extend and accelerate deployments via point-to-point wireless,” a Google spokeswoman said. Google also has a stake in telecom provider RCN, which serves Chicago, where Google employs more than 600.

Tech talent never has been cheap. But salaries of skilled coders are shooting even higher, crossing the $100,000-a-year threshold, as everyone from Chicago startups to Silicon Valley giants scrambles for more workers. And employers have little choice but to pay up.

After Apple introduced a kill switch last fall for iPhones and iPads, law enforcement officials in New York and San Francisco say the number of mobile-phone thefts and robberies dropped about 30 percent, respectively, during the first five months of the year.

Without saying that Apple's Activation Lock was responsible, police in Chicago and Washington report similar double-digit drops.

Dennis Roberson, vice provost for research at Illinois Institute of Technology and a wireless expert, is leading a Federal Communications Commission effort to come up with an industrywide plan by year-end for “kill switches” and “remote-wipe” technology that would allow victims to render stolen phones into useless bricks. In essence, he wants to turn smartphone theft into a dumb crime. Roberson is looking to carriers to take the lead on creating an anti-theft tool that works across all platforms and products.

“The first person to call has to be your carrier, not your insurance or police,” he says. “No one wants a unique role from Apple, Samsung or whomever. You don't want 20 different solutions.”