Update: Wednesday, August 5, 2015, 10:55 a.m.
Google Fiber is coming to San Antonio.
Mayor Ivy Taylor announced today that SA will be the next city to implement the hyper-fast Internet service, joining cities such as Austin, Kansas City, Nashville and Atlanta.
San Antonio is the largest city so far to get Google Fiber, both by area and population.
Google Fiber offers Internet speeds approximately 100 times faster than most Americans’ current service. But doing so involves installing about 4,000 miles of fiber optic cable throughout the city — a process which will take at least two years. Taylor called the project “one of the largest infrastructure investments a private company has made in our city in years.”
“While this is a key milestone on the path to world class Internet...there’s still a lot of work left to be done,” Taylor said.
Taylor said that city officials met with Google for over a year to plan the project. Part of their pitch was San Antonio’s status as a growing technology hub.
“If you build us a network, San Antonio residents will respond with a surge of innovation and ingenuity that will change our community forever, and may change the world,” Taylor said.
Mark Strama, head of Google Fiber Texas, said that the blazing speeds will, in the short-term, offer residents a reprieve from slow loading times and stalled out Internet service. But it will eventually yield unfathomable feats of technological innovation that are now impossible.
“That’s where entrepreneurs here get to really see what’s possible and develop those next-generation apps of the Internet. San Antonio will be on the cutting edge of this, and I know that this is the right city to take advantage of that opportunity,” Starama said.
Google will install cable around the city on a staggered basis, meaning that some neighborhoods will have the service before others.
Strama said that there “won’t be a contest” to decide which neighborhoods get the service first. Those decisions will be prioritized by which parts of town present the fewest barriers to installation.
– Michael Marks
Our original story is below:
San Antonio Mayor Ivy Taylor will announce this morning that it's official: The Alamo City will be part of the Google Fiber kingdom.
Though the city sent out a news release this morning with no details other than saying that "an important new project" will be unveiled, published reports cite City Hall sources confirming that it's Google Fiber.
Its service will bring breakneck internet speed – as fast as three times that of broadband – and other offerings.
Google Fiber is currently offered in only a handful of cities across the country, including up the road in Austin.
