Fiber

Google Fiber has been instigating the growth of fiber Internet in the United States for a few years, and now AT&T is feeling the heat more than ever. Announced at midnight last night, AT&T said it’s finally ready to start selling fiber Internet services in Kansas City and its surrounding areas (via The Kansas City Star). The company finished the rollout of 1Gbps “GigaPower” service in Austin late last year, and now it seems it’s finally time for AT&T to live up to its promise to bring the service to other cities around the country…

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We told you yesterday that Google was planning to bring Google Fiber to a handful of new cities, and today the Mountain View company has officially announced the expansion of its gigabit broadband service to Atlanta, Georgia; Charlotte, North Carolina; Nashville, Tennessee; and Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina.

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Update: The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Google is planning to announce Google Fiber expansion to four new cities: Atlanta, Georgia; Charlotte, N.C.; Raleigh-Durham, N.C. and Nashville, Tenn.

Both Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham in North Carolina have long been listed as potential Google Fiber cities, and Ars Technica reports that these cities could be the next to offer the super high speed Internet and TV service with announcements expected next week and construction possibly beginning as soon as April.
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After revealing pricing last week, Google has today opened signups for Fiber in Austin, Texas. Google is starting its Austin rollout by opening signups in the southern and southeastern sections of the city. The company will expand the rollout to other portions of Austin “on an ongoing basis.” Both residents and small businesses in the pre-determined Fiberhoods can signup for the service today.

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Google today has finally revealed its pricing plans for Fiber in Austin, Texas. The company plans to open up sign-ups for the internet service next month in the city, and while it was previously believed that Fiber in Austin would cost the same as it does in Kansas City and Provo, the company announced today that there are some slight variations (via Multichannel).

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Google has been slowly rolling out its Google Fiber gigabit Internet service to more neighborhoods in Kansas City, Provo, Utah, and Austin, Texas, but it’s now opening up the service to small businesses for the first time. Google announced today on its blog that it’s kicking off an “Early Access Program for Google Fiber for Small Business” starting with select fiberhoods in Kansas City.
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Google promised back in July that its deal to provide free WiFi at 7,000 U.S. Starbucks locations would include connections up to 100x faster than usual in cities with Google Fiber – and it has now started to deliver on that. The company announced in its Google Fiber blog that a Kansas City branch is now home to the fastest Starbucks WiFi in the U.S.

At the corner of 41st and Main Street, a Kansas City Starbucks is teeming with people writing emails, streaming music, sharing videos, and more. Now that same Starbucks—one of the busiest in Kansas City—is the first to be connected directly to Google Fiber, so anyone visiting the store can get super-fast Internet with their Pumpkin Spice Latte.

The technofest doesn’t end there, either … 
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Google Fiber is about ready to launch in its third city, according to The Wall Street Journal. The service is apparently about 3 months behind original schedule, and sign ups will be launched this December focusing on the south and southeastern parts of the city. The company’s original announcement touted “mid-2014” for launch, but it looks like laying groundwork for a fiber internet service isn’t exactly an easy task.

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Despite its blazing fast data speeds, Google Fiber is off to a slow start. The web search king’s home internet and television services are only available in a few markets and while it may be expensive to organize a community install, a lack of infrastructure doesn’t appear to be holding Google Fiber back. It turns out that the need for television programming could be delaying Mountain View’s ISP efforts, as Google is dishing out large sums of cash in hopes of competing with established cable companies.

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The Wall Street Journal reports that Google’s ultrafast Internet service Fiber has a new leader running the show, and not just any new leader. Dennis Kish, a former executive at semiconductor company Qualcomm, is replacing Milo Medin to head Google Fiber going forward. The Journal reports that Medlin will remain “an adviser to the Google Fiber team,” but the Google vice president will begin work on other unspecified projects.

Kish was brought in for his operational expertise and will lead Google Fiber as the high-speed Internet and television service expands to new cities.

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As first reported by the Kansas City Star, several cable companies have started bumping up their internet speeds for customers, free of charge, in order to better compete with Google Fiber in Kansas City. Both Comcast and Time Warner announced changes for their internet packages.

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Google, as noticed by GeekWire, has just acquired the networking start-up Alpental Technologies. The start-up is relatively unknown and never received too much press attention. Alpental was founded by former Clearwire executives, Pete Gelbman and Mike Hart. The former worked at Clearwire for seven years as a founding member of the company’s CTO group. He also oversaw the company’s systems engineering, intellectual property, and corporate research.

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Google’s Fiber internet and TV services are scarce to say the least, but that doesn’t mean the company isn’t working on making improvements to its platform before expanding it to bigger markets. The folks at Zatz Not Funny have uncovered a recent FCC filing for what appears to be a second-generation Fiber TV set-top box. While the listing is light on details, it does reveal that model number GFHD200 is loaded with connectivity options, including 802.11 ac/n WiFi, 10/100 Ethernet, MoCA, Bluetooth and HDMI 1.4.

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Earlier this year we told you that a number of additional cities were on the map for Google Fiber’s super high-speed Internet service including Portland, Oregon. Today, Portland’s City Council voted unanimously in approval of bringing Google’s gigabit Internet service to the area, The Oregonian reports. While the Portland commissioners did deliver approval for Google Fiber’s terms of the deal, the report notes that Google will “decide by the end of the year” if it will deliver on servicing Portland…
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Following earlier reports that Google was working on projects to bring WiFi hotspots to locations across North America, The Information is out with a report today claiming Google is planning “heavily subsidized Wi-Fi network hardware and software to small and medium-sized retail businesses.” 

The report claims Google will offer the service to businesses like restaurants, doctors’ offices and gyms and could unveil it for customers in the U.S. and elsewhere as early as this summer:
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More evidence that Google is preparing to roll out its own Wi-Fi networks in the U.S. has been discovered in documentation for its Fiber service that’s currently in the process of expanding. IDG News Service notes that Google Fiber documentation currently being sent out to cities in the running to receive Google Fiber next have revealed that Google has plans for WiFi in addition to the Gigabit internet and TV service: 
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Earlier this week, a job listing emerged regarding Google Fiber in New York City. This led many people to speculate that Google was working to launch its fiber network in the Big Apple. Fiber rollouts have been sparse so far, with the service only hitting a few markets, including Austin and Kansas City, so the idea of it launching in a city as massive as New York was certainly surprising. Although the company did recently announce a larger-scale rollout to nine new metro areas.

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via Google

According to a new report from The Information, Google has been exploring the possibility of providing its own wireless network in cities where Fiber, its ultra high-speed broadband service, exists.

After thrusting itself into competition with U.S. cable operators, Google is inching closer to competing with wireless carriers, too.

Google executives in recent months discussed their hope to offer a full-fledged wireless service in markets where it offers Google Fiber Internet and TV service, according to two people who have discussed the matter with Google. Such an offering would mean Google customers in places like Kansas City, Mo. could get voice and Internet access through their mobile devices wherever they go.

While the report seems to be vague on specifics, it suggests that a potential Google-operated wireless provider could use WiFi access spots built on Google Fiber’s gigabit broadband and rely on another wireless provider in the area to provide service to cover the gaps.
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San Jose Mercury News reports Mountain View City Council last night approved a new five-year deal with Google that will see the company revamp its aging free WiFi network in the city:
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Early last year, Google announced its intentions to make Provo, Utah its third Fiber city. In October, the company opened up sign-ups for a few customers along the local Veracity Networks provider, but told everyone else they would have to wait. Today, Google has announced that customers that live along the former iProvo can start signing up for Google Fiber.

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