When most telecom and cable companies across the US are charging exorbitant rates for mediocre, capped broadband, Google charges only $70 (plus taxes) per month for its Gigabit broadband service – Fiber. The service was first introduced in Kansas City, MO, but the tech giant from Mountain View, CA has been quietly expanding the footprints of the service over the past few years. Google Fiber is already available in several towns across the length and breadth of the country, and now, Google has some good news for internet users in The Heart of Dixie. The company, on Monday, announced that it intends to start operations in the town of Huntsville, Alabama, using infrastructure that’s being built by Huntsville Utilities. While Google has not officially announced when it will launch its services in the city, some sections of the local media are reporting an ETA of mid-2017.
While Huntsville is by no means the first city in the Deep South slated to get Google Fiber, it will most definitely be the first in the state of Alabama to get the enviable new internet service from Google. The service is currently available in just four metropolitan areas in the US, including Provo, UT; Austin, TX; Atlanta, GA and Kansas City, MO. Google has also confirmed that it will launch its services in a whole host of other towns including Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham, NC; Nashville, TN; Salt Lake City, UT; San Antonio, TX and now, Huntsville, AL. The company, however says that unlike in most other areas where it is building its own infrastructure from scratch (with a few exceptions), it will be “working with a municipality-owned network to bring our high speed service to Huntsville”.
As mentioned already, Google is not building its own infrastructure in Huntsville, unlike most of the other cities where it is rolling out the services. The company generally builds out its own optic fiber network for its FTTH connections in most areas where Fiber’s operational, but the company does point out some notable examples to the contrary. According to the official Google Fiber blog, the company apparently purchased the entire optic fiber network from the city to roll out its services in Provo, Utah. Meanwhile, in Atlanta, Google tapped into some existing fiber infrastructure in select areas, although most of the fiber network in the city is actually its own. It remains to be seen how long it takes for Google to finally start services in Huntsville, but residents in the area will be hoping that it will happen sooner rather than later.