Google Fiber coming to Austin, Texas

By Alex Dobie
published

Good news for residents of Austin, Texas -- your city is next on the list for Google Fiber roll-out. The gigabit cable service, which first launched in Kansas City last year, is set to become available to homes in Austin by mid-2014. Austinites will have the same choice of services open to Google Fiber subscribers elsewhere -- gigabit internet access, gigabit internet plus Google Fiber TV, or free internet access. Pricing, Google says, will be "similar" to that of Kansas City, which offers the internet-only package for $70 per month, or internet-plus-TV for $120. (There's also a free internet deal for $300 up-front or $25 per month for 12 months.)

Announcing the news alongside Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell, Google called the city "a mecca for creativity and entrepreneurialism."

The company says it's focusing its efforts on the Austin city limits for now, and will announce specific neighborhoods and boundaries at a later date.

If you live in Austin, hit the comments and make yourself know.

Source: Google Fiber, Google Fiber Blog

Alex Dobie
Alex Dobie
Executive Editor

Alex was with Android Central for over a decade, producing written and video content for the site, and served as global Executive Editor from 2016 to 2022.

31 Comments
  • Wow...anyone looking for a good software developer in Austin? Who else wants to move? :-)
  • Even if you're only mildly serious about this you should check out some job postings for Austin, everyone and their brother is hiring tech related jobs right now.
  • I wish I didn't have to wait until mid-2014 to get this! It really just pisses me off though to know what I pay now for 30Mbps/3Mbps and what this will cost. I hope my neighborhood is one of the first to get service.
  • n*.
  • I wanna move to Austin now..
  • Netflix 4K streaming will now be possible!
  • While I envy the speed that Google Fiber offers, I can't stand the $70/month price. I'm currently paying just $29.99 per month for 15mbps(down)/2mbps(up) speed with
    my local cable company. It's fast enough for almost everything I do, even HD
    video streaming from Netflix. I just don't see a reason to pay $70 for faster
    speed.
  • True, but when you add in the TV service everything changes. I pay $75 for TV and $55 for internet. So that's $130. I could get faster internet, and not have to deal with DirecTV for less...
  • If 15Mbps is fast enough for what you do, you're not doing a lot.
  • Don't ever be content with the price to speed ratio that we pay in the United States. Waiting for that music album to dowbload? Those 13 tracks? Literally less than 1 second it could take to download. How about that 1080P movie? Theoretically, 10-20 seconds. There's virtually no wait time with these speeds. It isn't even about always having faster, its about how the technology is there, but ATT/Time Warner, etc all do not want to pay for the upgrades (which they can afford) to give us, as consumers genuine quality internet.
  • What you say. The telecoms have absolutely no incentive to upgrade our infrastructure so we can have internet as good as Europe or Asia. This is really a pet peeve of mine so I'd better get off this thread... :-)
  • Doesn't matter how fast your speed is if the other end of the connection is still crap tier speed.
  • +1
  • What are the speeds like? $70 for internet only is kind of expensive, even compared to Comcast. $120 for TV included is a great deal depending on which channels you get. I pay about $175 after taxes and fess for Comcast preferred Tv with two cable boxes, one is a DVR and performance internet (25Mbps down and I think I have been getting about 6Mbps up based on my most recent tests). Even without TV I think Comcast's internet would be less than $70. I suppose if the google fiber is like 100Mbps down or something that would explain it but I would prefer a $45 package and 20Mbps down if there was a choice.
  • $70 gets you 1000Mbps down and 1000Mbps up. 1Gbps. 1 gigabit per second. Yes, I wrote that correctly.
  • Wow, that is a lot. What would a typical person even do with that? Even my ROM downloads for my GS3 which are around 800+mb don't take very long at all.
  • And with this internet it would be finished by the time you blink. The way we are heading, with higher quality media availability, this is necessary.
  • Symmetrical Gigabit speeds for $70 a month are impressive, but everyone should keep in mind that this does not necessarily mean that all of your download/upload speeds would increase linearly in comparison to the increase in your bandwidth. Remember that when downloading something (say a movie) not only your bandwidth affects the download speed, but the available bandwidth that the organization that you are downloading the movie from does as well. Even if you are downloading content from an org. that also has gigabit internet circuits, you aren't going to find many that will allow a single download thread to saturate that much of their available bandwidth. Unless you are doing some serious data intensive multitasking, the average individual is not going to fully utilize gigabit internet services. Businesses, however are a completely different topic.
  • Dear Google: If by buying stuff from you (tablets, Chromebooks, apps, etc.) I build your store of cash so you can some day bring me fiber, I promise to do so. Love, internet-starved Baltimore MD (where the absolute highest internet speed I can get without buying cable television is THREE mbps due to our old phone lines, and no matter how much cash I give to Verizon every month they don't ever upgrade them - and no, FIOS is not coming inside the city limits).
  • I'm excited. There's a lot of buzz in the city about it. Realistically it might not be in my home for another two years but I'm happy knowing something light years better than what we currently have is on its way. I only have Internet in my home currently, but I would gladly give the TV service a shot, too.
  • they need to come to nj save me money on my bill
  • The good news is that it's not a short term project and that they are expanding. Hopefully, Google Fiber gets to expand at a fast rate in the coming years.
  • At&t is also bringing it to Austin as well.
  • AT&T is bringing what to Austin? I have U-verse but will gladly switch to Google Fiber + TV next year if it is available in my area. Are you saying that AT&T is bringing something as fast as Google?
  • Reporting from Houston TX. Already planning in making my move to Austin by 2014. So glad to know I don't have to move to Kansas to enjoy Google Fiber.
  • Reporting in from ATX, Should be available when my lease is up, I can't wait to get it. I can see it now, New email... Subect: Wfh indefinitely
  • So North Korea wants to nuke them because they're JEALOUS of Austin? Sheesh...Lighten up, little fat man.
  • Interesting. Kansas City and Austin both have I.R.S. offices. Maybe Google is trying to kiss up to the tax man to make nice for moving all their income to a foreign country.
  • You sound like a thinking man. And now I think you are onto something. Couldn't be a mere coincidence.
  • Awesomesauce!! Can't wait to say bye-bye to AT&T.
  • I thought only wireless carriers defined free as "$300 up-front or $25 per month"