Google Fiber is on the move.
The tech giant this week invited three more cities—Louisville, San Diego, and Irvine, Calif.—to become Fiber cities.
The next step, according to Fiber Expansion Director Jill Szuchmacher, is a joint planning process with city leaders. Each party must pitch in: Google conducts a detailed study to detect factors that could affect construction, and city officials complete a checklist of items to prepare for a large-scale gigabit build.
"We've seen that this planning process is helpful, both for Google Fiber and city officials," Szuchmacher said. "Working together, we can take a massive infrastructure project and break it into manageable pieces."
Once that process is complete, Google will determine whether Fiber is a good fit.
"It's clear that Irvine, Louisville, and San Diego have strong leaders at city hall, who are passionate about bringing fiber to their communities and making the Internet more accessible for everyone," Szuchmacher wrote.
But a thumbs up from company and local officials doesn't mean residents will see super-fast Internet anytime soon. As Google pointed out, every city is different, and move forward on a unique timeline.
"And regardless of whether Google Fiber comes to the region, this process gives cities a head start in welcoming any gigabit provider to the area," the blog said.
Google's fiber rollout has prompted rival services, from AT&T to Comcast, to offer their own gigabit Internet services. Google Fiber, for example, is currently live in Kansas City, Austin, and Provo, Utah, with plans to expand to Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville, Raleigh-Durham, Salt Lake City, and San Antonio.
AT&T also now offers gigabit service in Austin, Nashville, and other cities where Google will have a presence. And Comcast in April introduced Gigabit Pro, which offers 2Gbps service, in Atlanta, with the goal of reaching 18 million homes by the end of the year.
Google Fiber, meanwhile, costs about $70 per month, or $120 bundled with TV service. There is also an option for free 5 Mbps Internet, if you pay the $300 installation fee.
In PCMag's recent Fastest ISPs 2015 report, Google Fiber scored high marks, though its small footprint prevented it from being named the country's fastest ISP overall. With an accelerated rollout schedule, though, that could change in the years to come.
Source: pcmag.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment