Google has its sights set on several new metropolitan areas for its Google Fiber Internet service. The company announced on Wednesday that it intends to bring Fiber to Phoenix, Atlanta, Nashville, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, Texas, Charlotte, N.C. and Portland, Ore. among others.
The area that surrounds each of these cities will also be considered for Google Fiber during the process. All the cities that Google nominated for Fiber must, of course, accept Google's offer first. Installing Fiber into major cities is no easy task, and Google requires city plans, known obstacles and other key information from the cities before it can get to work. Google tries to choose cities based on several criteria, perhaps the most important of which is this: Is it feasible to put Google Fiber in this city?
After all, everyone wants fast Internet and many cities compete with one another to win Google's favor, but not everyone gets it. Google is choosy. For example, there are nearly no states in the northeast with Google Fiber, but tons in the Southwest.
"We've invited 34 cities in nine metro areas across the US to work with us to explore what it would take to build a new fiber-optic network in their community," Google announced in a blog post. "Many of these cities asked for Google Fiber in 2010 and have since continued to try to bring better Internet access to their residents."
Google Fiber general manager Kevin Lo says that he wishes he could bring Fiber to every city that wants it, but in some places it's just not possible or it would create too much of a mess.
"Building an entire network across a city is a big, big project," said Lo. "It does take time, but a little bit of planning now goes a long way to minimize disruption to residents."
While determining whether Google can install Fiber in a city, the company analyzes topography, flood zones, areas that are prone to other natural disasters and other physical barriers. So although one major city may get the go-ahead from Google, another right next door might get turned down.
"During this process, we will work with each city to map out in detail what it would look like to build a new fiber-optic network there," Google said. "The most important part of this teamwork will be identifying what obstacles might pop up during network construction-and then working together to find the smoothest path around those obstacles. Some might be easy, some might take some creative thinking or a few months to iron out, and in some cases there might be such local complexities that we decide it's not the right time to build Google Fiber there."
In spite of the challenges, Google remains committed to spreading its Fiber Internet to as many cities as possible.
"The future of the Internet will be built on gigabit speeds," said Lo. "We're going to do our part to help move the web forward."
