Google Fiber chooses nine metro areas for possible expansion

34 cities will try to convince Google they’re worthy of gigabit fiber.

Jon Brodkin – Feb 19, 2014 12:00 pm | 211

Credit: Google

Google Fiber is ready to expand, as Google has identified nine metro areas scattered around the country as possible sites of deployment, the company said.

“We’ve invited 34 cities in nine metro areas across the US to work with us to explore what it would take to build a new fiber-optic network in their community,” Google said in an announcement today. “Many of these cities asked for Google Fiber in 2010 and have since continued to try to bring better Internet access to their residents.”

Google is “hitting the road” to meet with these cities, and “conducting detailed studies of factors that affect construction plans in each place, like topography (e.g. hills, flood zones), housing density, and the condition of local infrastructure.”

There’s no guarantee for any of these cities. Google is asking municipal officials to do the following:

Provide detailed, accurate maps—e.g. of existing infrastructure like utility poles, conduits, and water, gas, and electricity lines.

Ensure the company can access and put its fiber on existing poles or conduits—since it doesn’t want to dig up streets unnecessarily or put up duplicate poles.

Review permitting processes to make sure cities can handle as much as 100x their usual number of permit requests—once it starts building, Google wants to move quickly and on a predictable schedule.

Google said it “genuinely would like to build in all of these cities,” but that the complexities of deploying networks may not allow it. “During this process, we will work with each city to map out in detail what it would look like to build a new fiber-optic network there,” Google said. “The most important part of this teamwork will be identifying what obstacles might pop up during network construction—and then working together to find the smoothest path around those obstacles. Some might be easy, some might take some creative thinking or a few months to iron out, and in some cases there might be such local complexities that we decide it’s not the right time to build Google Fiber there.”

A Google spokesperson told Ars that “[w]e want to bring Fiber to all of these cities, and would be prepared to build in each of them.”

Google Fiber went live in Kansas City in late 2012, and recently began serving customers in Provo, Utah. The company has begun construction in Austin, Texas, with a plan to hook up the first customers later this year.

Google said it will provide updates on which other cities will get Google Fiber before this year is over. The 34 cities being considered are Phoenix, Scottsdale, and Tempe in Arizona; San Jose, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, and Palo Alto in California; Atlanta, Avondale Estates, Brookhaven, College Park, Decatur, East Point, Hapeville, Sandy Springs, and Smyrna in Georgia; Nashville-Davidson in Tennessee; Charlotte, Carrboro, Cary, Chapel Hill, Durham, Garner, Morrisville, and Raleigh in North Carolina; Portland, Beaverton, Hillsboro, Gresham, Lake Oswego, and Tigard in Oregon; San Antonio in Texas; and Salt Lake City in Utah.

Google Fiber in Kansas City offers gigabit Internet for $70 a month or gigabit Internet and TV for $120 a month. A 5Mbps service is offered at no monthly charge, but requires payment of a one-time $300 construction fee. That construction is waived for customers who buy the gigabit service.

Monthly prices are the same in Provo, but all three types of plans require a one-time construction of just $30 because in Provo, Google was able to buy and upgrade an existing network.