Oh no, you're thinking, yet another cookie pop-up. Well, sorry, it's the law. We measure how many people read us, and ensure you see relevant ads, by storing cookies on your device. If you're cool with that, hit “Accept all Cookies”. For more info and to customize your settings, hit “Customize Settings”.

Review and manage your consent

Here's an overview of our use of cookies, similar technologies and how to manage them. You can also change your choices at any time, by hitting the “Your Consent Options” link on the site's footer.

Manage Cookie Preferences
  • These cookies are strictly necessary so that you can navigate the site as normal and use all features. Without these cookies we cannot provide you with the service that you expect.

  • These cookies are used to make advertising messages more relevant to you. They perform functions like preventing the same ad from continuously reappearing, ensuring that ads are properly displayed for advertisers, and in some cases selecting advertisements that are based on your interests.

  • These cookies collect information in aggregate form to help us understand how our websites are being used. They allow us to count visits and traffic sources so that we can measure and improve the performance of our sites. If people say no to these cookies, we do not know how many people have visited and we cannot monitor performance.

See also our Cookie policy and Privacy policy.

This article is more than 1 year old

Don't mess with Texas ('cos it's getting Google Fiber and you're not)

A bit late, but company says 1Gbps Austin network almost ready to compete with AT&T

Another US city will be get a high-speed fiber broadband network courtesy of Google, though it is a few months late.

Google's Austin Fiber website confirms that starting in December, residents will be able to start signing up for the gigabit-a-second service.

The launch will make Austin the third US city to get a Google Fiber network, following rollouts in Kansas City, Missouri, and Provo, Utah. In both of those cities, Google Fiber offers free internet, paid internet and paid internet-and-television plans.

Like Kansas City, customers in Austin will be required to pay a $300 connection fee on the free 5Mbps plan. Customers who sign up for paid internet or internet-and-TV plans will have the fee waived and up to 1Gbps speeds.

The web giant originally set mid-2014 as the rollout date for the service in Texas, but has since delayed the project as it laid cable for the network.

"Building an entirely new fiber network is a massive construction effort, and we want to do right. That means investing the time upfront on network design, planning, and permitting," a spokesperson told The Register.

"We're in the heavy construction phase of building the network in Austin today."

Such was not the case in other markets. Provo, for example, already had a fiber network built, which the city handed to Google for $1.

Austin is not the final stage of the Fiber plan: the advertising goliath has already laid out plans to move into a number of other US markets in the coming years.

The Austin launch pits Google against a pair of major US telcos for broadband supremacy in the city of 885,400 residents. AT&T operates one of its two GigaPower fiber network deployments in the city, while Time Warner Cable has moved to up its internet speeds in Austin – though the company maintains that the sudden investment had nothing to do with the prospect of competing with AT&T and Google. ®

Similar topics

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like