In a decision that will doubtless be closely examined by the boffins at Australian’s NBN Co, Google appears to be scaling down its plans to roll out fibre-to-the-premises networks in leading US cities – and moving towards wireless Internet delivery.

While around 1000 cities applied to join the project, Google Fibre service has reached just six metro areas in four years, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Now Google parent Alphabet is rethinking its high-speed Internet business and is looking to use wireless technology, rather than cables, to connect homes in about a dozen new metro areas, including Los Angeles, Chicago and Dallas.

Google Fibre last month bought Webpass, a company which beams Internet service from a fibre-connected antenna to antennas mounted on apartment buildings. It already serves 820 buildings in Boston, Chicago, Miami, San Diego and the San Francisco Bay area, with connection speeds running as fast as 1Gbps.