Google Fiber was initially rolled out in 2020, and was available to customers in select US cities, including but not limited to Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Huntsville, Kansas City, Nashville, Orange County, Provo, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, West Des Moines, Chicago, Denver, Miami, Oakland, San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle. Now, they plan to extend this reach to include Mesa, Omaha, Kansas, Utah and Des Moines as well.
Once they have enough coverage in the US, they will eventually expand the service to other countries as well, with UK and Canada being top of the list. Up until now, US customers were able to opt for one of two plans featuring top speeds of 1 and 2 GBPS, available at a monthly cost of $70 and $100, respectively.
With the introduction of these new plans, they will have the option to pick between two additional high-speed plans that will deliver 5GBPS and 8GBPS speeds at a monthly cost of $125 and $150, respectively. The plans will also include symmetric upload and downloads, a WiFi 6 router, and two mesh network extenders as part of the bundle.
To give you context about the value of this plan, a similar 6GBPS service from rival Comcast will cost customers up to $300 per month, and that is without symmetric uploads. So, at least customers are getting a worthwhile upgrade. Customers who are interested can apply to be a "trusted tester", with trials starting as early as November.
This is the first time in five years that Google has made some moves to expand its network and deliver better service to its customers. Considering the company's history of abandoning services and products on a whim, it is a relief to people who still believe that the company can deliver on their promise of fast and cheap internet.