Google Fiber has agreed to consider San Diego for its super high-speed broadband internet service, the company announced Thursday.
By bringing fiber-optic cable directly to homes, the service can offer speeds up to one gigabit per second or 1000 Mbps, much faster than the average internet service speed of 11.9 Mbps.
With speed like that, a customer can buy and download a movie to a device in two minutes, the company says.
“We don’t just want modern infrastructure, we also want it smarter, faster and more accessible to families and businesses,” said Mayor Kevin Faulconer, speaking to the media from a neighborhood in Barrio Logan. “This will help small businesses, start-ups, and neighborhoods, “ he said, and help close the digital divide.
Olympia Beltran is a resident of Barrio Logan whose children attend local schools. “This is an excellent development for our neighborhood,” she says.
Beltran says her children have access to the internet now, but she says, “They will have it at faster speeds, which will allow them to finish work a lot faster, it allows them to take on other projects, be involved in after school program, and work extra hours.”
The city says Google Fiber will apply for a permit to build the network, and pay for all costs.
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In Austin, the cost for Google Fiber ranges from $130 a month for Gigabit and television to $70 for Gigabit Internet.
There is no monthly fee for basic internet from the date the address was first connected to the Google Fiber network but there is a $300 construction fee.
It is not known how much San Diego customers would pay to use the high speed internet access, but the mayor said, when additional providers come in to a city, pricing gets more competitive.
But how quickly could the high speed network get here? Faulconer says Google Fiber is doing its due diligence, and it will be months before the city will make a decision about whether the project is feasible here.
The company will look at the city's local topography, housing density, and the condition of existing infrastructure to determine if it's a fit.
Google Fiber service is now available in Kansas City, Kansas, Kansas City, Missouri, Provo, Utah, and Austin, Texas.
Along with San Diego, Google Fiber is looking at building high speed networks in Irvine, California and Louisville, Kentucky.
