Google Fiber is continuing its expansion in Missouri with a project in its capital city. On the evening of February 20, the city council of Jefferson City approved the service provider’s right-of-way license agreement, which paves the way for fiber optic network construction.
The first steps will be engineering and permitting, which are to get underway immediately. Construction will begin later this year and the first customers will get service in 2025, according to Rachel Merlo, GFiber’s Head of Government & Community Affairs for the Central Region.
GFiber has deep roots in in Missouri. Though Kansas City, KS, technically became the first Google Fiber city in 2011, Kansas City, MO soon followed. The entire metro is considered to be the initiative’s birthplace.
More recently, GFiber has completed a pledge that it made in August, 2022. At that point, GEO Dinni Jain said that the company would serve Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, Idaho and Nebraska. At the time, only Arizona had been announced.
Earlier this month, GFiber won a franchise in Clark County, NV to complete the five-state pledge. Like the Jefferson City project, customers will begin getting service next year. Clark County, the most populous in the state, includes much of the Las Vegas metropolitan area.
GFiber typically provides few details when it announces new projects. One area where it was more expansive is in providing advice and recommendations to state broadband offices as they prepare their Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program Five-Year Action Plans and Initial and Final Proposals.
