GFiber to tangle with Mediacom and Lumen in Missouri's capital

GFiber's expansion strategy continues to press forward.

GFiber, now the brand for Google Fiber, announced that it will start building out its fiber network in Jefferson City, Missouri, after the city council approved a right-of-way license agreement.

GFiber will kick things off with an engineering and permitting process, with construction set to start later this year. GFiber expects to start serving customers in Jefferson City in 2025, Rachel Merlo, head of government and community affairs for GFiber's central region, noted in this blog post.

The agreement paves the way for GFiber to expand in Missouri, building on its existing fiber network serving the Kansas City area.

GFiber's move into Jefferson City will pit the operator against a set of incumbent wireline broadband operators – Mediacom Communications, Lumen and Socket.

The Jefferson City build ties into GFiber's broader expansion plan that initially focused on parts of Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada and Idaho. Examples of recent new build targets for GFiber include Clark County, Nevada; Lakewood, Westminster and Wheat Ridge, Colorado; Logan, Utah; Council Bluffs, Iowa; and Pocatello, Idaho.

The move into Jefferson City enters the picture as Alphabet, GFiber's parent, seeks out investors to help fuel further expansion and reportedly pursues a goal for GFiber to run as an independent company.

"This next step of raising external capital will enable them [GFiber] to scale their technical leadership, expand their reach, and provide better internet access to more communities," Alphabet President and CEO Ruth Porat, recently told Reuters.

GFiber is currently part of "other bets," a unit that also includes entities such as Verily and Waymo. Other bets generated Q4 2023 revenues of $657 million, up from $226 million in the year-ago quarter. Other bets also posted a Q4 operating loss of -$863 million, narrowed from a year-ago loss of $1.23 billion.

Google Fiber currently markets 1-Gig, 2-Gig, 5-Gig and 8-Gig speeds and offers speeds up to 20 Gbit/s in certain markets.