Google Fiber revs up network expansion efforts

After pressing pause on network expansions and trimming back some of its original commitments in 2016, Google Fiber has definitely hit the "play" button again with respect to buildouts.

After notching deals to build fiber networks in West Des Moines and Des Moines, Iowa, and more recently in Mesa, Arizona, Google Fiber is now setting its sights on network expansions into cities in a handful of midwestern states.

Figure 1: Google Fiber hopes to hang its shingle in several more US cities in the coming years.
(Source: Zoonar GmbH/Alamy Stock Photo)

"If you've been following Google Fiber, you know we've been pretty busy lately ... [I]t's about to get even busier at Google Fiber," Dinni Jain, Google Fiber's CEO, promised in this blog post.

Jain, a former cable industry exec with operators such as Time Warner Cable and Insight Communications, said Google Fiber has been holding talks with city leaders in five states – Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada and Idaho – in recent months, "with the objective of bringing Google Fiber's fiber-to-the-home service to their communities."

Jain didn't identify which cities are being explored or present any specific timelines, but noted that "[t]hese states will be the main focus for our growth for the next several years, along with continued expansion in our current metro areas."

Google Fiber, Jain added, will be sharing more details about new cities, as well as "even faster speeds" in the coming months.

Google Fiber's current high-end service provides 2 Gbit/s down by 1 Gbit/s up for $100 per month. Google Fiber has all but phased out its own managed IPTV service, but instead promotes several virtual multichannel video programming distribution (vMVPD) services, including DirecTV Stream, FuboTV, Sling TV and Google's own YouTube TV.

Jain also opened the door to communities interested in building their own fiber networks, pointing to the municipal-focused model Google Fiber has established with cities such as Huntsville, Alabama, and West Des Moines. "We'll continue to look for ways to support similar efforts," wrote Jain, who took the helm of Google's access business unit in 2018.

Here's an update on Google Fiber's current and planned network and service deployments using FTTP or Webpass, its fixed-wireless platform:

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— Jeff Baumgartner, Senior Editor, Light Reading