Good news for residents of Atlanta, Nashville, Raleigh-Durham, and Charlotte! You’re about to join a vaunted club of cities that are just a little bit better than the rest of us because you’re the next four places that will be getting high-speed Google Fiber internet service. The news first broke in The Wall Street Journal, and additional details about the rollout are expected within the days to come.
Many first had an inkling of what they were in for when Google began sending invitations to local media in each area to attend press events around a mysterious announcement. According to The Verge, it’s likely that Google will be offering customers gigabit internet service for roughly $80 per month, the same rate it offers in Kansas City where the service first launched in 2012. While it may be tempting to start looking at real estate in Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina’s metropolitan areas, Google will take about a year or so in order to install the necessary infrastructure for fiber-optic internet. And not every area will receive it; Google won’t install the groundwork if the interest isn’t there.
Currently, Google offers its Fiber service in Austin, TX, Provo, UT, as well as Kansas City. They have long been considering plans to expand the sought-after service, identifying 9 potential expansion areas this past February. These four new cities are the easternmost of all potential expansion sites, but hopefully Google hasn’t forgotten about those of us on the west coast. Dear Google, if you’re reading this — and I know you are — please add Los Angeles to your list of cities. The wi-fi in my apartment is just short of atrocious and I would genuinely appreciate being part of the future. I’ll sacrifice one of our interns to your The Matrix-style goo pods or whatever you need. Just make it happen.
It’s not 4 cities, it’s 5. Raleigh and Durham are 2 cities
Yes, it’s they’re two different cities. However, we’d all like Durham to sink into the earth, so it doesn’t count.
It’s not up to google fiber, the list that they have now is due to the government of each city to provide permits, information, etc by a date that has already passed. They might have another wave but bottom line, if LA isn’t on the list, it’s most likely cause LA didn’t do what google needed it to.
Yes and no, this is a HIGHLY desirable product. Having fiber in your city allows you to have a serious selling point to tech firms, which arguably are a major part of the economy of the future.