How Google Fiber Works

There aren't many places that have Google Fiber yet. In 2010, Google asked state, county and city officials and other interested community members to answer questions online and nominate their communities for consideration. In November 2012, they rolled out their first fiber network in Kansas City, Kansas. As of late summer 2014, Google Fiber is only available there and in Kansas City, Missouri and Provo, Utah, with service coming soon to Austin, Texas. Sign-up windows are only open for a limited time. For the Kansas City sign up, the neighborhoods that had the highest numbers of takers got their service built first. Google started to build once a certain percentage of a neighborhood's residents signed up.

Other areas being considered by Google for future roll-outs include 34 cities in the metro areas around Atlanta, Georgia; Portland, Oregon; San Jose, California, Phoenix, Arizona; San Antonio, Texas; Nashville, Tennessee; Salt Lake City, Utah; Charlotte, North Carolina and Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. Google is conducting studies and working with local officials to see what it will take to build their networks in those areas as far as infrastructure, housing density and topography, among other things that could affect construction of a fiber network. Google is asking city officials for access to infrastructure and maps and for ways to expedite construction permitting, since such a large undertaking could require thousands of permits. The company aimed to announce which of the cities will be getting fiber by the end of 2014, and has stated that it could be all of them, depending upon their findings. Google says it will share its findings with the cities to help them with similar future projects, even in places where Google doesn't ultimately decide to build.