Google is extending its Google Fiber services to three more locations: Jacksonville, Tampa and Oklahoma City. Just like in Kansas City, the Mountain View tech firm hopes that its high-speed Internet service will help local companies there to grow.
To roll out Google Fiber, Google needs to do a little homework first to see whether or not a location can accommodate installation requirements. The company is even handing out forms with numerous questions to potential locations to find out how they can support the Fiber service.
"Constructing a brand new fiber network is a big job — the more we learn about a city, the smoother our construction efforts will be," the Google Fiber team posted on its blog.
It's quite a long process, and it's not like Google can just come to a city and push a button to turn on Fiber services.
The Fiber team also uploaded (PDF) the checklist it hands out to cities.
"Cities will complete a checklist of items — such as providing a map of utility lines — that will prepare them for a large-scale fiber build," the Fiber team wrote on another post.
Compared to existing Internet service providers, Google promises that its Fiber services will deliver speeds 100 times faster but with the same price.
On a side note, a high-speed Internet connection does not equal complete stability. Take the day of the World Series for example. When one of the biggest sports events was about to start, Fiber services went down.
We're so sorry about the outage in KC. We know it couldn't have happened at a worse time, and we're working as quickly as we can to fix it.
— Google Fiber (@googlefiber) October 28, 2015
It was not clear what caused the outage, but the culprit seems to have been a malfunction in the security process that blocked users from accessing Google servers.
Google Fiber is currently available in Kansas City, Provo and Austin and is slated to go live in more than 20 U.S. cities. The Fiber team is also looking to install its services in cities in Oregon, Arizona, Kentucky and California.
Jacksonville, Tampa and Oklahoma City are joining in the list that the Google Fiber team invited to its services. It also includes Irvine, Louisville and San Diego.
