Google announced its Fiber broadband in San Antonio. Google Fiber will soon be offered in Salt Lake City, Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham, Atlanta and Nashville in addition to San Antonio.
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Google, the top search engine in the world. estimates it will have to install about 4,000 miles of optic cable in San Antonio, the seventh largest city in America, before the service will be ready.
The service is now being offered in Austin, Texas, Provo, Utah and Kansas City. The service typically costs about $70 per month for just high-speed Internet service. “This is no small task, and it will take some time, but we can’t wait to get started”, said Mark Strama, head of Google Fiber, Texas. As part of its mission to help the community, Google also promised to setup computer labs and provide computer skills training in all of the cities that have Google Fiber service.
No Internet infrastructure has been built in the city yet.
“Fast growing cities need Internet speeds that can keep up with their progress”, Strama says.
Google has rolled out fiber in phases in other cities, starting with neighborhoods where there’s the most demand, so it’s not clear when or if all of San Antonio will be wired up. There’s also the Tech Hire and Connect Home initiatives by President Obama that is expected to bring more tech jobs in the city. Portland, another city he named, has also been targeted by Google as a future site for its Fiber network.
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Started five years ago in Kansas, the ambitious project represents Google’s attempt to pressure major broadband providers such as Comcast, Verizon Communications and AT&T Inc.to upgrade their networks so they run at faster speeds.
