Google Fiber Expanding to 34 Communities

Google recently announced that the company is expanding its Fiber Optic network into 34 communities across the United States.

The announcement was detailed on the blog post made by Vice President of Google Access, Milo Medin published Wednesday. He mentioned that Google acknowledges the need for faster Internet and its important role in making innovations, economic growth, and improved education a reality. It also highlighted San Antonio's mayor, Julian Castro's declaration in June, where he said that he hoped that every school should be awarded access to gigabit Internet speeds as early as 2020.

The 2012 launch of ultra-fast Internet from Google proved to be successful in Kansas City, Texas, and Provo, Utah and now, the company is looking to expand their fiber optic network into different cities of nine metropolitan areas across the United States. The 34 cities include areas in Nashville, Tenn, Atlanta; Charlotte, San Antonio; Salt Lake City, San Jose, Calif., Raleigh-Durham, and Portland, Ore. These cities will work closely with the Google Fiber team to see if they like to have their communities connected to Gigabit-speed internet and TV services.

However, according to general manager of Google Fiber, Kevin Lo, not all of the 34 cities will get the Gigabit-speed services. "We're going to work on a detailed study of local factors that could affect construction, like topography (e.g., hills, flood zones), housing density and the condition of local infrastructure. Meanwhile, cities will complete a checklist of items that will help them get ready for a project of this scale and speed. For example, they'll provide us with maps of existing conduit, water, gas and electricity lines so that we can plan where to place fiber," he said to eWeek.com.

Every one of these cities will be involved in extensive discussions needed in building a complex fiber network such as the establishment of necessary infrastructures, acquisition of permits, and local issues which the community might face in making such changes.