Google Picks Atlanta, Nashville, Raleigh-Durham, And Charlotte For Google Fiber Rollout

Google's Fiber service is headed to the southeast, as the company announced today that the next cities to get its gigabit Internet are Nashville, Tennesse; Atlanta, Georgia; and Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. In addition to these four big cities, several additional towns nearby are also getting Fiber, bringing the total number of Fiber cities in this group to 18.

The announcement comes a little over a month since Google delayed the initial announcement, citing that the company had "a bit more work to wrap up." Initial plans to look at more cities to place Fiber began last February. Parties in the considered cities had to complete a checklist of items such as providing information about city infrastructure and providing access and streamlining the construction process before being chosen by Google.

The goal now is to look at the infrastructure plans provided by the selected cities and figure out where to lay down the fiber lines while avoiding crucial utilities such as electricity, water and power. Additionally, surveyors and engineers will comb through certain areas of each city to cover any missing locales that might have been missed in the original plans. Google said that the process could take a few months, but once the planning stages are finished, construction can begin.

Google's plan to install Fiber sounds quick, with residents potentially signing up before the end of the year or even early next year. However, if its past work is any indication, the planning and construction might take a little longer than expected. Austin, Texas was announced as another city to get Fiber in April 2013, but the actual construction didn't start until September 2014, almost a year and a half later. Residents in the south and southeast region of Austin have already signed up, but it's still unclear when the network will be up and running.

Elsewhere, residents in only two counties in the Kansas City area, the first city to get Fiber, will be able to sign up sometime this year, and in Provo, Utah, the sign up period has ended but construction is still ongoing.

Even as the foundations for Fiber begin in the new areas, Google is still looking ahead and already considering new locations for Fiber. Portland, Oregon; Salt Lake City, Utah; San Jose, California; Phoenix, Arizona; and San Antonio, Texas are all on the company's list, and an update about each city's eligibility will have to wait until later this year.

Regardless, Google's expansion plans show that the trend of gigabit Internet is gaining ground all over the country. In addition to Google's seven metropolitan areas, companies such as Ting, EPB, LUS Fiber, and CenturyLink are all currently providing or have plans to provide gigabit Internet to places such as Charlottesville, Virginia; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Lafayette, Louisiana; Omaha, Nebraska; Las Vegas, Nevada; and 14 other cities across the country.

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  • big_tiger
    NOOOO I needed Dallas Fort worth metroplex on that list!
    Reply
  • envain
    I dont get why they arent pushing harder for the bay area, I see San jose is on the list So im assuming the permits are just way more expensive for the city and eastbay compared to South East and the south.
    I feel the most of the money to be made would be in the more dense population areas.
    Reply
  • apache_lives
    I wish Google fiber was available in Australia, but all we have is our prime minister Tony Abbott - the worlds biggest technophobe who scrapped our fiber plans because who need more then ~10mbps down and ~1 up... right?
    Reply
  • darkguy2
    Hopefully Google has learned from the previous projects and will use that to streamline the process for these new cities. I hope that one year from now I will be using my new fiber connection.
    Reply
  • knightmike
    Las Vegas, NV please.
    Reply
  • dietcreamsoda
    Why is google laying fiber in a bunch of hick-ass cities?
    Reply
  • Retrowire
    woohoo, can't wait! oh and dietcreamsoda watch it. RDU isn't what you would call "hickass". we're the up and coming silicon valley of the east coast. only getting bigger too.
    Reply
  • milkod2001
    Looking at price list: https://fiber.google.com/cities/kansascity/plans/

    Basic Internet - Up to 5 Mbps download & 1 Mbps upload speed FOR FREE
    but you have to pay $300 for one time construction fee or there are $25/month payments WHAT A JOKE.

    Gigabit Internet $70/month sounds good for those speeds.
    Is there any downloading cap? Does Google promise not to sniff around all private browsing/down/uploading and whatnot? Does saying:''INVITE DEVIL TO YOUR HOUSE' fits here? lol
    Reply
  • GreaseMonkey_62
    I'm still clinging to the pipe dream that Fiber will come to NE Ohio. I'm just glad that Google is continuing to push forward with this project.
    Reply
  • jjb8675309
    +1 to LV, NV please, we are slowly becoming a tech hub with our massive data centers.
    Reply