Google announces Google Fiber for four metros

Google yesterday announced that Google Fiber would be coming to Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville, and Raleigh-Durham, with the gigabit internet service set to hit 18 cities across those four metro areas, arstechnica.com reported.

Kansas City (KS and MO) were using gigabit speeds to put their cities on the map, bringing the total number of Google Fiber metro areas to seven, including previously announced locations Kansas City; Provo, Utah; and Austin, Texas. Another five were still being considered as Google promised updates on Phoenix, Portland, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, and San Jose later this year.

"Bringing Google Fiber to these cities is a long-term investment. We've been working closely with city leaders over the past year on a joint planning process to get their communities ready for Google Fiber-and now the really hard work begins," Google Fiber VP Dennis Kish wrote today. "Our next step is to work with cities to create a detailed map of where we can put our thousands of miles of fiber, using existing infrastructure such as utility poles and underground conduit, and making sure to avoid things like gas and water lines. Then a team of surveyors and engineers will hit the streets to fill in missing details. Once we're done designing the network (which we expect to wrap up in a few months), we'll start construction."

Meanwhile, www.kmbz.com reported that when Google yesterday announced plans to bring its high-speed internet service to a handful of cities in the southeastern US, residents of the areas went into full-on celebration mode.

While Google did not give a time frame as regards when the service would be operational, people from the areas have started looking forward to enjoying the service which Google claims was up to 100 times faster than basic broadband.

It would be possible to download movies as fast as in two minutes while, according to Google, the high-speed service could help make advances in science and business.

The competitive prices had also made many users switch. The company charged $70 per month for internet service and $120 for a television and internet bundle in the Kansas City market.

"New research from the Fiber to the Home Council shows gigabit networks are contributing billions of dollars in economic growth," Dennis Kish, vice president of Google Fiber, said in a blog post yesterday, referring to the nonprofit group dedicated to bringing fiber-optic internet to more customers.

"Communities across America are demanding more speed for their own homes and businesses, and we're going to keep doing our part to help," Kish added.