Google Fibre Network Set To Expand To 34 US Cities

Google has announced that it is planning to extend the rollout of its high-speed fibre network across the US, with 34 cities across nine major metropolitan being lined up to take part in the next stage.

In a blog post, Milo Medin, vice president of Google Access Services, outlined that the company was looking to carry out further work following Fibre’s success in initial projects in Kansas City, Austin and Provo.

“We’ve long believed that the Internet’s next chapter will be built on gigabit speeds,” Medin wrote. “And now that we’ve learned a lot from our Google Fiber projects… we want to help build more ultra-fast networks.”

Google says that fibre is able to deliver the Internet at speeds up to 100 times faster than average networks, and is hoping the service will provide it with a further revenue boost as customers consumer ever-increasing amounts of online data.

Coast to coast

The company will confirm which cities will be receiving the network later this year following initial consultations with leader in each of the target cities, covering all the local factors and challenges involved in installing high-speed networks.

Google also says that the cities will need to complete a checklist of items to help them to prepare for the project, including such information as maps of existing conduit, water, gas and electricity lines, so that the company can plan where to place the networks.

This planning will also help minimise the disruption usually caused when laying fibre networks by giving Google access to existing city infrastructure such as telegraph poles, meaning that the company won’t need to unnecessarily dig up streets or erect new poles or towers next to existing ones.

The Google fibre project was first announced in 2010, with the search giant confirming the three initial sites in April 2013, although there were delays in the rollout of the Kansas City project as the city’s leaders questioned potential legal issues and responsibilities if problems developed with the service.

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