Google is set to announce the expansion of its Google Fiber internet service to four new cities, The Wall Street Journal reports, with the details of the new rollout coming in the next few days. According to the publication's sources, the company will start to offer the one-gigabit broadband network in Atlanta, Nashville, and in two cities in North Carolina — Raleigh-Durham and Charlotte.
Local media in the cities were clued into the expansion after receiving invitations from Google to attend events scheduled this week. It's not yet clear what kind of deals the cities will get — Google has yet to comment — but it's likely that customers will be able to get gigabit internet for around $80 per month, the same price as customers in Kansas City, where the service first launched in 2012. People in the new areas can expect Google to take around a year to build the requisite infrastructure for fiber-optic internet, but not every neighborhood will receive it — interest is gauged by area, and the company won't lay down the network if it doesn't get enough of a response.
Google currently offers Fiber internet in Austin, TX, and Provo, UT, in addition to Kansas City, but the company has been openly considering extending its Fiber service for some time now, identifying nine metropolitan areas as potential expansion areas in February of last year. Of the nine, the four new sites are the furthest east, but Google says that the move won't halt Fiber's expansion to the west of the country. David Vossbrink, a spokesperson for San Jose, said that Google officials told him that the new announcements "should not be considered the end of the road for the other areas."
Google currently offers Fiber internet in Austin, TX, and Provo, UT, in addition to Kansas City, but the company has been openly considering extending its Fiber service for some time now, identifying nine metropolitan areas as potential expansion areas in February of last year. Of the nine, the four new sites are the furthest east, but Google says that the move won't halt Fiber's expansion to the west of the country. David Vossbrink, a spokesperson for San Jose, said that Google officials told him that the new announcements "should not be considered the end of the road for the other areas."
