Google Fiber said today that it has signed a license agreement with the city of Logan, Utah that will allow the company to begin the planning process to deploy a fiber broadband network there. The company also said it is looking for organizations to test 20 Gig service.
Construction in Logan is expected to begin this year, and Google Fiber expects to offer service there in 2024. In a blog post, Silvia Castro, Head of Government & Community Affairs, Utah & Idaho, for Google Fiber, also noted that “the Utah team is continuing to build out our network along the Wasatch Front. With Logan, we’re working to extend our network further north in Utah and bridge our new cities in Idaho as well.”
Google Fiber 20 Gig
Google Fiber already has been testing 20 Gig capability at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where the School of Science and Engineering has been using it to work with big data sets and to make virtual reality “less virtual and more reality,” said Nick Saporito, Head of Multi-gig & Commercial Product for Google Fiber in a separate blog post.
Saporito said Google Fiber is looking for eight businesses, non-profits, and educational institutions in Austin, Huntsville, Raleigh-Durham and Salt Lake City to help test 20 Gig service.
The 20 Gig service is expected to be useful to organizations that:
- Download or upload massive datasets
- Conduct research that needs significantly more bandwidth
- Are working on future-focused technology that needs a lot of bandwidth
Organizations meeting those qualifications are encouraged to contact Google Fiber via an online form to express their interest.
Google Fiber already offers 5 Gbps and 8 Gbps service in some areas.
Google Fiber should launch in every city. After all, if you don’t plan to build anything, what’s the difference?
I think Google’s fiber architecture is similar to FIOS which is basically GPON. I could be getting the particulars mixed up. But thats why FIOS is limited to 1 gig symmetrical and Google Fiber is 2 / 1 gig asymmetrical. Google is basically maxing out GPON with the 2/1 configuration.