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Google Fiber is one of the fastest internet provider options out there, but it is also one of the rarest. Based on a recent announcement from Google, it is about to become a lot less rare, as they are starting to roll out their fantastic service to a list of major US cities, including places like Nashville, Atlanta, Charlotte, and Salt Lake City. Currently, Fiber is only available in 3 major locations: Kansas City, Provo (Utah), and Austin. Honestly, I feel like Google says it best:
Over the last few years, gigabit Internet has moved from idea to reality, with dozens of communities (PDF) working hard to build networks with speeds 100 times faster than what most of us live with today. People are hungrier than ever for faster Internet, and as a result, cities across America are making speed a priority. Hundreds of mayors from across the U.S. have stated (PDF) that abundant high-speed Internet access is essential for sparking innovation, driving economic growth and improving education. Portland, Nashville (PDF) and dozens of others have made high-speed broadband a pillar of their economic development plans. And Julian Castro, the mayor of San Antonio, declared in June that every school should have access to gigabit speeds by 2020.
We’ve long believed that the Internet’s next chapter will be built on gigabit speeds, so it’s fantastic to see this momentum. And now that we’ve learned a lot from our Google Fiber projects in Kansas City, Austin and Provo, we want to help build more ultra-fast networks. So we’ve invited cities in nine metro areas around the U.S.–34 cities altogether–to work with us to explore what it would take to bring them Google Fiber.
As that quote from Google says pretty clearly, they are looking forward to bringing this once-theoretical idea into a reality. They are starting to plan with each city’s leadership as to how the network will roll out, but also to look at what kind of challenges they may fact in the process of building it. Google does of course mention that they want to bring Fiber to all the cities listed, but that is entirely possible that litigation and the like will prevent this from happening. All I know is that my city is not on the list, so I will need to wait even longer for any shot at Google Fiber… or just move to one of the selected cities! Are any of you lucky enough to have your city on this map? Let us know down below in the comments!
Via: 9To5Google | Source: Google Fiber Blog