Google Fibre To Arrive In Austin, Texas

Following a successful trial in Kansas City, Google has decided to bring its superfast fibre broadband to Austin, Texas.

The connections that offer speed “100 times faster than today’s average broadband performance” are due to go live in the middle of next year, and the registration process has already been opened to the public.

Fiberhood

In September 2012, Google switched on its fibre network in Kansas City, offering residents one gigabit Internet service for $70 (£45) a month. Thousands of urban centres across America were competing for a chance to become the next test bed for Google’s fibre, and the company has chosen the capital of Texas.

In Kansas, Google asked residents to gather their neighbours to “lobby” for the right to be connected, through a sign-up competition. The neighbourhoods with higher numbers of pre-registrations were the first ones to get the service.

The same idea of “fiberhoods” has been carried over to Austin, and Google has already invited local residents to sign up.

The first network took 16 months to build, but the second project should be online quicker, with Google hoping to start connecting homes and businesses by the middle of 2014.

The service will cost as much as it does in Kansas, and the addition of Google TV will set customers back $50 (£30) more.

Google can also provide a free Internet connection capped at 5Mbps for seven years to customers that pay a one-time installation fee of $300 (£189). Schools, hospitals and other public organisations will be connected to the gigabit network at no charge.

“Communities that are connected to the Internet grow stronger because there’s greater potential to create jobs, drive economic growth, and help businesses succeed. We believe the Internet’s next chapter will be built on gigabit speeds, and we hope this new Google Fibre city will inspire communities across America to think about what ultrafast connectivity could mean for them,” wrote Milo Medin, VP of Google Fibre on the company’s blog.

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