Google rolls out high-speed gigabit 'Fiber' network in Austin, Texas

[Polycount]

High-speed, affordable internet is every PC enthusiast's dream. Unfortunately, given the state of the broadband market in the US, it's rarely one the average person can achieve. Not for reasonable prices, anyway.

That's where Google comes in. For years now, Google has been offering the public its own gigabit fiber internet package in select cities -- for a measly $50. That's an astoundingly low price for those lucky enough to live in a supported "Fiberhood," but Google's Fiber rollout has been pretty slow. They've faced numerous setbacks over time and even shut down their network in some locations, such as Louisville.

Regardless, Google continues to forge ahead. To prove that point, Google today announced that Fiber coverage is coming to Austin, Texas. The network has already been available in one of Texas' other major cities -- San Antonio -- for quite a while now, so this news isn't a huge surprise.

Unlike San Antonio's Fiber coverage, however, Austin's version of the network offers both Webpass (which gives high-speed Gigabit internet to those in condos and apartments) and traditional Fiber. Either way, you'll be paying $70/month for a gigabit connection, and $50/month for a 100 megabit connection.

If you live in Austin and want to give Fiber a shot, you can check if your specific address has access to the network on the official Google Fiber website. If you don't have it yet, worry not. The full city rollout will likely take some time, so check regularly.

Image credit: WFAE

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https://www.techspot.com/news/81344-google-rolls-out-high-speed-gigabit-fiber-network.html

 

[DelJo63]

Hmm; Strange vertical expansion IMO. Little to be gained for Google while it represents massive cost increase.

 

[Dylan Perry]

I've had gigabit fiber in Austin, through Google, for a year and a half now. I'm confused. What am I missing here?

 

[DelJo63]

Not saying anything against Google's fiber -- speaking only as an investor -- where/how does this add to the bottom line?

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Not saying anything against Google's fiber -- speaking only as an investor -- where/how does this add to the bottom line?

More customers means more revenue. Pretty basic stuff.

 

[Lionvibez]

Once you go fiber you can never go back congrats to texas, I dropped cable and went fiber in march.
Superior Speeds, latency,jitter and stability.

 

[SantistaUSA]

I've been using Google Fiber 1 Gbps connection for about 6 years, it is awesome and I'm glad they keep expanding!

 

[DelJo63]

More customers means more revenue. Pretty basic stuff.

My point is incremental profit is totally dependent upon new customers and that's
meager on a per install basis.

Once you go fiber you can never go back congrats to texas, I dropped cable and went fiber in march. Superior Speeds, latency, jitter and stability.

but of course

I've been using Google Fiber 1 Gbps connection for about 6 years, it is awesome and I'm glad they keep expanding!

Happy for you -- how many others will it take to let Google reach the breakeven point??

 

[cliffordcooley]

"For years now, Google has been offering the public its own gigabit fiber internet package in select cities -- for a measly $50. That's an astoundingly low price for those lucky enough to live in a supported "Fiberhood," but Google's Fiber rollout has been pretty slow. They've faced numerous setbacks over time and even shut down their network in some locations"

There would likely be fewer setbacks. If they would charge for the massive bandwidth rates.

 

[Skjorn]

I was one of the first people to get GF 1gbps+TV. . I liked it much more in the beginning..

The speed is great and consistent, TV works OK. The overall experience had been declining though.

They first advertised that you would get 1TB of personal in-home storage on what is basically a DVR box. You could put music or movies and even your pictures. I could stream any music I had on the storage box to my surround sound and it worked. The movies would work. If the TV was left alone then my pictures I loaded would be displayed on the TV and cycled through..

Then came a few updates that blocked all personal media usage and the storage box could only be used to store recorded TV. I could still put personal files on the storage but they were unusable.

The TV boxes also allow you to use Netflix and YouTube. While they work ok they can be extremely laggy and useless if you try to fast forward of rewind. I don't even bother rewinding YouTube anymore it just hangs.

Also I moved recently, got new hardware installed here, all the same terrible problems. The tech also just drilled straight through the side of the house because he was afraid of spiders in the basement..

 

[RaXoR]

They need to expand this to other cities. Some of us are stuck paying $66 for 200mbps speeds and for gigabit through any other ISP averages around $100 to $120 a month. That is, unless you live in a city serviced by google in which the competing ISPs match and even undercut google's prices sometimes.

 

[Uncle Al]

Spector gives us 200 mbps for $65 a month and it has been surprisingly stable with only a few hiccups and no data caps. They are now offering it WITH cable TV for $45 for a year (no contracts) and considering the increase that Youtube TV has added (with very little improvement in services) I think it might be time to take the dive. Youtube TV USED to be great until they got bought out, now they are turning into the same old crap we used to see from you know who ......

 

[syrious01]

Come to Dallas Ft Worth already!! its a massive metroplex with literally millions of potential customers.

 

[texasrattler]

Google announced Fiber to Austin like 2 years ago. Not sure why this is even news since it's been available in the area for awhile. It's definitely not new to Austin or even Texas.

 

[Axiarus]

"For years now, Google has been offering the public its own gigabit fiber internet package in select cities -- for a measly $50. That's an astoundingly low price for those lucky enough to live in a supported "Fiberhood," but Google's Fiber rollout has been pretty slow. They've faced numerous setbacks over time and even shut down their network in some locations"

There would likely be fewer setbacks. If they would charge for the massive bandwidth rates.

Their setbacks have been of the lobbying against them kind.