Google Fiber is working to build a fiber-to-the-home network in Omaha, Neb., the company announced this week.
The initial step for the Omaha project will be for the company to receive a license agreement from the city. The license will provide Google Fiber with access to the city’s right-of-way. The company plans to make its initial license request during the Oct. 4 Omaha City Council meeting.
If the license is approved, Google Fiber plans to start construction in early 2023.
With two Google data centers already in the Omaha metro area and another one under construction, Google has been a part of the community for a while, wrote Rachel Merlo, Google Fiber head of government and community affairs, in a blog post. “At Google Fiber, we look forward to deepening connections with Omaha’s residents and businesses by providing fast, reliable internet service. Omaha residents can sign up for more information on our website.”
Google Fiber is pushing gigabit service in other areas as well, with CEO Dinni Jain outlining a new multi-gig strategy in a recent blog post: “Google Fiber’s differentiating factor has long been our vision that the internet should be measured in gigs, not megs. We’ve always believed that the internet would depend on faster and faster speeds, and symmetrically fast speeds at that.”
In addition to Omaha, the company is in talks with city leaders in Colorado, Nevada and Idaho, about markets for expansion. Those new states joined Arizona, which was previously announced.
Jain said in one of the earlier posts that Google Fiber was building out in its existing markets and has begun connecting subscribers in West Des Moines, Iowa. Construction soon will begin in neighboring Des Moines.
It is trivially easy to expand something that doesn’t exist. You don’t even have to lay fiber. They “expanded” to my city well over a decade ago and you still can’t get Google Fiber anywhere in town. It is the world’s biggest vaporware.