Metro cities being considered for Google Fiber
Atlanta
Avondale Estates
Brookhaven
College Park
Decatur
East Point
Hapeville
Sandy Springs
Smyrna
Other metro areas in the running
Charlotte
Nashville
Phoenix
Portland
Raleigh-Durham
Salt Lake City
San Antonio
San Jose
Areas that already have or are getting Google Fiber
Kansas City
Provo, UT
Austin
Google Fiber: How it works in Kansas City
Pricing: The tech giant hasn't disclosed what prices it might offer if it comes to Atlanta. But in Kansas City, it has offered three main monthly pricing tiers*.
Gigabit internet connection, plus TV: $120.
Gigabit internet connection only: $70.
Basic internet connection: $25 a month for the first year, then no charge for the next six years. (Or $300 upfront and no monthly fees).
*Prices don’t include taxes and fees.
Signing up: Google installs fiber to what it considers neighborhood-sized areas. Whether it then strings the fiber on to individual homes depends on how many people in the area sign up for service over a period of a few weeks. Google said it wants sign ups by at least 5 to 25 percent of the people in each neighborhood area, depending on the density of homes, before bringing fiber to individual homes.
See what information Google is asking local cities to provide by May 1: https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/fiber.google.com/en/us/about/files/googlefibercitychecklist2-24-14.pdf
Atlanta and eight surrounding cities face a fast-approaching deadline to stay in the running for ultra-fast Google home Internet and TV connections.
Residents could get connection speeds that make downloading movies a blur and fresh competition for what’s become a staple of American life. Just this week, rival AT&T announced it, too, may bring such super-fast service to parts of metro Atlanta.
Google’s project would require installing thousands of miles of overhead and underground fiber. That could mean torn up yards, streets and sidewalks, more construction-snarled traffic and municipal staffs facing loads of rushed permits.
So far, though, the groundwork is being done behind the scenes.
For weeks, city staffers at the nine metro area candidates have amassed and uploaded mountains of data to Google that it says it needs to evaluate the potential of bringing in Google Fiber. They’ve sent material pinpointing every city-owned pole, manhole, right of way and underground utility route. Google’s gotten information on every parcel, lot line and address, road pavement conditions and regulations on issues from tree trimming to utility construction.
Google also wants to know what city property might be available to host Google equipment.
The cities face a May 1 deadline, midnight Pacific Time.
“Things have been going very well with Atlanta and all the surrounding cities,” Google spokeswoman Jenna Wandres said. “Everybody is on track” to meet the deadline.
What city leaders still don’t know is exactly what they will get in return.
Google will digest the material it’s getting from the metro Atlanta cities and 25 others nationally. It also will weigh soil conditions and other factors. By the end of the year it expects to announce the cities where it will install Google Fiber. The company isn’t saying exactly what factors will prompt it to move forward in any of the candidates.
“This is not a competition,” Wandres said. “We generally want to bring fiber to all 34 cities and would be prepared to.”
A hundred times faster
The fiber — which Google first installed in Kansas City, Kansas — offers speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second, or 100 times faster than typical U.S. home connections. Residents will pay for access, just as they do with phone and cable providers.
Google hasn’t disclosed what prices it would charge locally. In Kansas City, the company’s gigabit Internet-only price starts at $70 before taxes and fees. That’s significantly higher than what Comcast and AT&T advertise for their lower level, Internet-only residential service in metro Atlanta.
But it’s only a bit higher than AT&T’s current top-end service here, Power Internet with a downstream speed of 45 megabits per second — still far slower than gigabit. That costs $65 a month for the first year. Comcast’s top speed now is 105 megabits, at about $90 a month for new customers.
But a Comcast spokesman said Thursday the company will start offering a 505 megabit service here next month. Prices for that aren’t yet set.
So far businesses are not part of the service Google is considering in Georgia, though the company plans to test service to some small businesses in Kansas City.
Wiring a city the size of Atlanta would be a massive and costly undertaking for Google, which would fund the work. While Google says it would prefer to use the fastest and least disruptive route — stringing fiber overhead on existing power poles — it’s likely to put some fiber underground either in existing conduits or in trenches it would have to dig and re-cover.
”Until we see their design, I can’t assess how major or minor the impact will be,” said Kristin Wilson, a deputy chief operating officer for Atlanta who has been spending about a day each week focused on Google’s information request.
In metro Kansas City, residents have complained about neighborhood trees chopped for the new overhead lines and disruptions from phone, cable and gas lines being cut accidentally by Google contractors, according to the Kansas City Star.
Drooling over upsides
Google has said it has good reason for embarking on its Fiber project: More speed is good for its business both in the short-term and farther out when new ventures could be hindered by slow speeds.
Metro Atlanta officials see mostly upside, too.
“It is very important for us to get it,” Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Because we are sending a signal to the funding community in America … about where they should be. Google is such an important player in that community.”
Besides the bragging rights of being Google-wired, local officials drool over other upsides: super speedy connections for homes, more competition for residents’ dollars and a push for established providers to beef up their own offerings.
On Monday, AT&T said it is considering building new fiber optic networks in metro Atlanta and dozens of other cities around the nation. Locally, it is contemplating the expansion in Alpharetta, Atlanta, Decatur, Duluth, Lawrenceville, Lithonia, McDonough, Marietta, Newnan, Norcross, and Woodstock. The company said it is seeking streamlined permitting from local governments.
Monday conference calls
Each Monday afternoon, officials from the nine cities participated in a conference call to compare notes and share ideas on their Google responses.
Those interviewed said they’ve tried not to spend money to comply with Google’s information requests. But it has gobbled up staff time over two months.
“There’s a lot of value that we are giving to Google,” said Sandy Springs Mayor Rusty Paul. “And they are in essence asking us to provide at no charge.”
Paul said they’ve also had to keep in mind that whatever they do for Google will set a precedent for how they handle other companies that might embark on telecommunications expansions.
But he’s jazzed about the potential impact from landing Google Fiber.
“It makes a statement about your community,” Paul said. “A forward-looking technically engaged community, which is something that every community aspires to.”
“We are doing everything we can to bring them in.”
