Atlanta, Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham, Nashville next up for Gigabit fiber-to-the-home
Google Fiber, the tech giant’s ambitious project to offer fiber-to-the-home beginning in major metro markets, has started construction of its network in the Atlanta metropolitan area.
On June 25, Google Fiber notified locals of the construction phase of the rollout.
From the e-mail: “Over the last few months, our team has been drawing up blueprints for our new fiber network in metro Atlanta. But that was just the start. We’re doing some heavy lifting – literally – to bring Google Fiber to communities throughout Atlanta. There are crews working on the streets with boom trucks, tunnel boring machines, and rolls of cables as we form the foundation of our network. We’ll be sure to let you know if we’re going to be doing construction near your home.”
Google Fiber is currently available in Austin, Texas; Provo, Utah; and Kansas City, Mo.
In greater Atlanta, Google Fiber is planned for Avondale Estates, Brookhaven, College Park, Decatur, East Point, Hapeville, Sandy Springs and Smyrna.
Google said the fiber going in around Atlanta would “reach from here to Canada, and you will see our engineers and crews in the streets for a long time.”
Google is not the only fiber player taking on the Atlanta market. Comcast’s offering, called Gigabit Pro, offers speeds up to 2 Gbps, and is available in some California markets as well as in Atlanta. The Atlanta deployment puts Comcast in direct competition for fiber customers as both Google Fiber and AT&T Mobility are moving into that market.
Comcast has a fiber network in Atlanta, more than 145,000 route miles in fact, and potential customers will be “within close proximity” to the core.
The company has been offering enterprise Internet up to 10 Gbps since 2010. Comcast also has a partnership with Major League Baseball’s Atlanta Braves. In that case, Comcast will wire the new mixed-use stadium development with multigigabit speeds.
