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Provo man upset with Google Fiber’s plans to do work in his backyard

Posted at 6:06 PM, Apr 18, 2017
and last updated 2017-04-18 20:06:32-04

PROVO – A Provo man says Google Fiber is cutting into his good night sleep by doing utility work at the worse possible time – from midnight til 4 a.m.

Maicon Macedo is a customer of Google Fiber. He hasn’t had any complaints about the high-speed internet service. That’s until he was told a couple of months ago, they would be disrupting his life, as he put it.

“A couple guys just knocked on my door saying that they're from Google Fiber and they needed access to my backyard,” said Macedo.

Macedo says the men weren’t in uniform or in a work vehicle, so he was hesitant to let them in.

“I told them I'm sorry you're not going to get into my backyard. You have no I.D. with you,” said Macedo.

A week ago he says he got a call from a Google Fiber manager.

“She called me saying that they have to do some work in my backyard and it's gonna be from midnight to 4 a.m. I was asking if there's any other way could we do it at different hours,” said Macedo.

Macedo says their time frame would make it impossible for him or his wife, and baby to get any sleep before they work in the morning.

“I do have a lot of sleeping problems. I'm on a prescription now and have a CPAC machine so sleeping is sacred,” said Macedo.

Macedo claims the company wouldn’t back down and threatened him.

“The thing that I'm not ok with is they're threatening to take my fence down,” said Macedo.

He filed a police report and contacted the city to see if he had any legal recourse.

Turns out he doesn’t. There’s a utility easement in Macedo’s backyard that Google Fiber and Provo Power must access to splice some fibers.

A Google Fiber spokesperson sent the following statement:

"Google Fiber's priority is to be a good neighbor. Working with Provo City and our utility partners, we'll do our best to mitigate any disruption caused by this necessary infrastructure work while also preserving service for our Provo customers."

Provo Police tells Fox 13 Google Fiber has a legal right to enter the property and as a precaution, they’ll have an officer at Mr. Macedo’s home at midnight to ensure their work is completed.

If customers have any concerns with Google Fiber, they can call 877-454-6959.