Here are some frequently asked questions about Google Fiber. Click any or all of the questions to see the answers.
I live in one of the future Fiber cities and I want to help. What can I do?
We first need to work with your city leaders to see if Fiber is a good fit. If you want to stay in the loop on our progress, you can
sign up here. We will send you updates and let you know when we might need your help in the future.
These cities are led by people who have been working hard to bring faster Internet speeds and the latest technologies to their residents. We believe these communities will do amazing things with a gig. They are also diverse—not just geographically, but in the ways that will give us opportunities to learn about the wide range of challenges and obstacles that communities might face when trying to build a new fiber network.
How long before these cities know whether they will be a Fiber city or not?
This process will take some time, but we hope to have updates on which cities will get Fiber by the end of the year. We want to have the chance to work closely with every city to map out and understand all possible local needs and challenges.
What exactly do cities need to do now?
We will be working closely with the mayors and staff from each of these 34 cities. We will walk through details about the Google study and about the fiber-ready checklist, and we will answer any questions they have. After that, we will be working closely with the cities over the next few months as we work on our study and they work on their checklist. Then, the completed checklist items will be due to us on May 1.
What is on the checklist? Why are these things so important?
Three main items are on the checklist:
-
We are asking cities to ensure that we, and other providers, can access and lease existing infrastructure. It would be wasteful and disruptive to put up duplicate utility poles or to dig up streets unnecessarily, when we could use existing poles or conduit.
-
We are asking cities to provide accurate information about local infrastructure, like utility poles, conduit, and existing water, gas, and electricity lines, so we will know where to efficiently place every foot of fiber.
-
We are asking cities to make sure they have permit processes suitable for a project of this scale. Anyone building a large fiber network would need to submit thousands of construction permits—and many cities have small permitting offices that might not be prepared for that volume of paperwork. This will help us build as fast as we can and deliver service to residents as soon as possible.
How did you decide the list of items a city needs to do in order to be considered for Fiber?
The checklist was compiled based on (1) a combination of things we have learned from our work so far in our first Google Fiber cities, and (2) a selection of best practices that have been highlighted by the Fiber to the Home Council, as well as the US Conference of Mayors, among others.
What would keep you from bringing Fiber to a community?
We hope to bring Google Fiber to every city on this list, but there are a few circumstances that might make it tough and even impossible to build our Fiber network in a city. The city’s checklist is the most important step toward making their community ready for the fiber-optic networks of the future. If a city does not want to proceed with us and chooses not to complete their checklist, we will not be able to bring them Google Fiber. There are also some physical characteristics of a city that might make it really complex for us to build Google Fiber. For example, underground construction might be really difficult due to bedrock or unusually hard soil. In these situations, we would share what we learned in our studies with city leaders, and we hope they would be able to use that information to explore other options for bringing super high-speed Internet to their residents.
Still have a question that is not answered here?
Email us