google fiber

Google Fiber spawns startup renaissance in Kansas City

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- The modest two-story bungalow on State Line Road looks like the typical twenty something, post-college "share house."

The house is old; the decor is very basic. Like most homes to post-college grads, it's furnished with second-hand furniture. Several fake leather recliners line the walls in the living room and a big oversized sectional couch sits in the corner, offering plenty of room for geeks with laptops to comfortably park themselves while writing code. A big white board on the wall displays the email addresses and Twitter handles of the many hackers who have … Read more

Fast fiber: Apps coming at 70 percent the speed of light

In the movie "Iron Man 3," the titular hero struggles in what appears to be a rinky-dink backwater town to find an Internet connection fast enough and big enough to crunch data to find the terrorist villain. The town looks to be Nowhere, U.S.A., but we're told, it is actually Chattanooga, Tenn.

Known to some as "Gig City," the real Chattanooga would have posed less of a problem for Tony Stark's heroic data-analyzing needs. The modest city of half a million has more than 150,000 homes wired for affordable Gigabit Internet. … Read more

Is cable holding back superfast broadband adoption on purpose?

The cable industry insists that it's ready and able to compete with Google Fiber when it comes to delivering ultra high-speed broadband.

Indeed, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts last week showed off a 3Gbps cable broadband connection at the industry's annual trade show in Washington, D.C. That's three times faster than Google Fiber, which itself is nearly 150 times faster than the current average broadband connection in the U.S. Armed with that capability, he confidently welcomed Google's challenge to deliver ultra high-speed broadband to consumers.

"I hope there's a demand for (Google Fiber),&… Read more

Google exec sees Google Fiber as a 'moneymaker'

KANSAS CITY -- Google is in it to win it when it comes to building fiber broadband networks. Despite speculation to the contrary, Google sees its Google Fiber broadband business as a moneymaker, and not just an overpriced test network.

And it's very likely that the company will continue expanding the service into other cities willing to partner to keep costs down.

Speaking at the Fiber-to-the-Home Council meeting here late Wednesday, Milo Medin, vice president of access services for Google, told an audience of city planners, engineers, and city mayors that Google is not just building a testbed for … Read more

Analyst: Google Fiber probably won't go national

Here's some buzzkill news to get your day started (at least for those of us on the West Coast).

Market intelligence firm IHS iSuppli has published a new report suggesting it is unlikely that Google will deploy Fiber on a nationwide level.

The natural first reaction might be annoyance with this, but when you think about the cost, scope and scalability of such an endeavor, these analysts are likely right -- at least for the near-term future.

Certainly, Google Fiber has been on a roll lately. Following up its initial deployment in Kansas City, Google then spread the Gigabit … Read more

AT&T CEO: We'll piggyback on Google's Fiber rollout plans

AT&T seems perfectly willing to let Google blaze the trail when it comes to fiber-optic deployment.

Google has said it plans to deploy its fiber network in select neighborhoods in Austin, Texas. AT&T said it would also like to build a fiber network -- under the same kinds of terms and conditions.

"We will probably piggyback on the rules and terms and condition that Google received in Austin and do our own build in Austin," CEO Randall Stephenson said Wednesday at a J.P. Morgan tech investor conference in Boston, which offered a live … Read more

Google adds Gladstone, Mo., as fifth recipient of Google Fiber

Google's Fiber web is growing a little bigger in the Midwest.

The Gladstone, Mo., city council on Monday approved expansion of the Web giant's speedy Internet and video service into the Kansas City suburb, Google announced Monday.

Already available in Kansas City, the first location to get the high-speed Internet service, Google Fiber's expansion plans have been picking up speed in recent months. The Gladstone decision comes a little more than a week after Shawnee, Kan. -- another city located near Kansas City -- voted to bring Google Fiber to its residents. Google also plans to install … Read more

Google expands Fiber to Grandview, Mo.

Google Fiber is hitting another Kansas City, Mo., suburb, the online giant said Tuesday.

Grandview, Mo., will become the latest location to snag the super-high-speed Internet, joining other cities such as Austin, Texas; Provo, Utah; and Shawnee, Kan.

However, Google said in its blog post that it will still be "awhile" before it can build Fiber in Grandview as it needs to plan and engineer its network there first.

Google, which announced the Fiber project in February 2010, began construction of the network backbone in February 2012. The idea behind Google Fiber is for the company to build … Read more

Google Fiber heads to Shawnee, Kansas

Google Fiber is making its way to another part of Kansas.

The search giant on Thursday announced that Shawnee, located just outside of Kansas City, has voted to bring Google Fiber to its residents. Google Fiber is already available in Kansas City, the first location to get the Google high-speed Internet service.

Google Fiber has started to slowly expand its footprint across the U.S., with the company recently announcing that it'll be made available to Austin, Texas, residents. Provo, Utah will also receive Fiber service.

Google on Thursday did not say when its service will be available to … Read more

Google Fiber prompts Time Warner to offer free Austin Wi-Fi

Though Time Warner Cable's free Wi-Fi hot spots are nothing new, there is something perhaps more than coincidental about the timing of their launch in Austin, Texas.

Did someone say Google Fiber?

Well, actually, Time Warner itself did. In its announcement Thursday that it's bringing free Wi-Fi hot spots to its Austin customers, the company said it was Google launching its superfast Internet and TV service in the Texas capital that gave Time Warner momentum.

"We've been rolling out our free Wi-Fi network across our footprint for some time now, as part of our larger strategy … Read more