Google Fiber's Austin, Texas Rollout Confirmed

skade88 writes "As earlier rumors suggested, Google Fiber will indeed roll out in Austin, Texas, with the first homes receiving service in mid-2014. The delay is due to the need for a whole new fiber network to be deployed for the service. It will only be deployed within the Austin City limits. Google says in early 2014 they will allow people in Austin register their address for service. They plan to deploy to the neighborhoods with the most interest."

Re:a national roll out is only 100 years away

[symbolset]

In the very announcement they link to the FCC broadband page about how to build out your own community gigabit municipal fiber network. You don't have to wait for Google. They would rather you didn't.

Re:Why not Houston?

[interkin3tic]

Just throwing this out there: perhaps google figured that Houston public officials were already bought and paid for by one or two telecoms, and would be determined to make this second test a failure. Houston isn't exactly known for having honest public officials acting in the interests of the public. I remember hearing that public transit or even biking was near impossible in houston due likely to gas and car companies' influence.

I feel your pain, living in Chicago. Google fiber is never coming here. Even AT&T can't buy decent 4G speeds here.

Re:Meaning

[Hunter Shoptaw]

That's a BS post. I'm in the heart of the KC roll out and Google has lowered the bar at least once on neighborhoods getting in. They base interest by the percentage of the population of the fiberhood that enrolls for the $10 deposit. This is true "vote with your dollar" work here. It's really about how much the community is willing to go out and spread the word and get their neighbors on board.

Re:Why not Houston?

[Wheelie_boy]

Because Austin, like KC, owns its own electric utility. That makes it way easier to string fiber along the power right of ways. Plus, yeah, Austin is cool.

AT&T announces gigabit network in Austin

[paulbsch]

Just after Google's announcement, AT&T made an announcement that it will bring a gigabit network to ATX: https://www.google.com/search?q=at%26t+gigabit+austin&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:unofficial&client=firefox-a [google.com]