Google Fiber CEO Dinni Jain says the company is growing up

North Carolina native Dinni Jain doesn’t just run Google Fiber. In his spare time, he also helps oversee an equally complex business: a farm. Both endeavors have involved a lot of trial and error thus far. But with a winning formula for each now sorted out, the time has come for both businesses to mature from experimental adolescence to adulthood. According to Jain, Google Fiber’s willingness to experiment with new ideas – both good and bad –was almost the antithesis of the telecommunications model he was familiar with. The 2-inch trenching, which it used in Louisville (KY) was a notorious failure that ultimately resulted in the company leaving that market in 2019. Google Fiber thinks it finally worked out the speed and cost equation with a business model it can replicate widely. And that, Jain said, is what was behind its decision in 2022 to shift gears from experimentation to expansion. Jain said it is looking for communities with poor broadband performance and low satisfaction with incumbent providers. With those identified, the next step is finding communities with a willingness to let them build using the micro-trenching technique it favors.