Skip to main content

Report: Google Fiber is headed to Austin, Texas

google fiber
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Reported by local ABC affiliate KVUE as well as VentureBeat, both organizations have been invited to a Google event on Tuesday, April 9 that will likely be an announcement about the installation of Google’s gigabit Internet service within Austin, Texas. Confirmed by multiple sources within the City of Austin government, a blog post about the service rolling out in Austin was spotted by an Engadget reader at 3 a.m. Eastern time this morning on the official Google Fiber page. Sporting the title “Google Fiber’s Next Stop: Austin, Texas,” the post has since been removed from the Google Fiber home page. 

Google Fiber InstallationDuring 2010, a grassroots campaign called BigGig Austin attempted to lure Google to Austin when the Google Fiber management team was looking for the first city to roll out the gigabit Internet service. While Kansas City residents eventually won the honor of getting access to Google Fiber before anyone else in the United States, the BigGig Austin campaign attracted over 15,000 Austin residents to lend support to the effort. 

In an interview with Gigaom during 2011, the leader of the grassroots effort, Chip Rosenthal, indicated that Texas laws could have been behind the reason that Google passed over Austin for Kansas City. When asked about losing out to Kansas City, Rosenthal said “Austin caught their eye for all the right reasons, and we had support at the highest levels with the involvement of the mayor and the city manager, but given the Texas limitations on municipalities getting involved in network, there was only so far we could go. So I look at the Texas Legislature, because they really put us in a box with regard to Google, and every response the city gave had to be measured within that box.”

Some of the options currently available to Austin residents for high-speed Internet service include Time Warner Cable and AT&T U-Verse as well as satellite service and a local company called Grande Communications. However, it’s likely that these companies will have to become more competitive with pricing if Google Fiber does launch in Austin later this year. After Google Fiber launched in Kansas City, Time Warner Cable quickly started offering increased Internet speeds to Kansas City customers in addition to slashing prices for that service.

Google-Fiber-StoreAccording to Google, the Google Fiber service offers upload and download speeds that are up to 100 times faster than broadband services from competing companies. Regarding the speedy service, Netflix continues to verify Google Fiber’s superior Internet speeds and recently rated Google Fiber as the fastest Internet service available in the United States.

Assuming Austin residents will be paying the same Google Fiber rates at Kansas City residents, the one gigabit service will cost $70 per month and the $300 installation fee is waived. That also comes with 1TB of Google Drive space and there are no data caps on the service. Google also offers a “free” service that offers download speeds up to 5Mbps. However, the user will have to pay the $300 installation fee upfront or in $25 increments over a one year period. It’s also likely that Google will break up the city in segments on the Google Fiber home page and ask Austin residents to request service in their area. Google uses this information to schedule the installation based on the interest levels in each local neighborhood.

Editors' Recommendations

Mike Flacy
By day, I'm the content and social media manager for High-Def Digest, Steve's Digicams and The CheckOut on Ben's Bargains…
Best OLED monitor deals: Get an OLED screen from just $450
Marvel's Spider-Man running on the Samsung Odyssey OLED G8.

Shopping some of the best monitor deals is a good way to save on some extra screen real estate, but if you’re looking for something that can produce a stunning image you should turn your shopping cart toward the OLED monitors. OLED is one of the best picture technologies currently available, and it can create a lifelike image that makes interacting with games, presentations, and creative work much more immersive. The best OLED monitors can run pretty expensive, but that’s what OLED monitor deals are for. If you’re looking for superior picture quality and some ways to save, read onward for more details on the best OLED monitor deals taking place right now.
ViewSonic 15.6-inch VX1655 4K OLED portable monitor — $450, was $500

Getting into the OLED game can be both affordable and portable with the ViewSonic VX1655. It’s a 4K OLED display that’s made to function as either a laptop extension or something to pair with a tablet. It comes in at a super sharp 4K resolution and a refresh rate of 60Hz. This isn’t something you’d want to pair with a gaming PC, but it’s a great little display to keep with you if you do creative work on the run or want some extra screen real estate while working on a tablet at your desk.

Read more
Best monitor deals: Gaming, office, curved, OLED and more
Dell UltraSharp 27 4K PremierColor Monitor

Whether you prefer to work at one of the best desktop computers, the best laptops, or anything in between, an external monitor can be helpful to add some extra screen real estate. One of the best monitors can even go a long way toward reducing eye strain and creating an immersive digital or gaming experience. While high end monitors can get quite expensive, there are always some impressive monitor deals to shop, and we’ve tracked them all down. Reading onward you’ll find what we feel are the best monitor deals, whether you’re shopping for 4K monitors, gaming monitors, ultrawide monitors, or more general monitors meant for all-purpose users.
Best monitor deals

The following deals represent a best-of of the deals below. They're selected to give a mixture of prices, styles, and levels of discount. If you don't see something you like, don't worry, as the following sections will have plenty more deals for you to choose from. However, this is a highly recommended place to start:

Read more
7 best Chromebooks for 2024: the best for every budget
Close up of the Chrome logo on the top of a Chromebook.

Chromebooks might have a hard time competing with Windows laptops and MacBooks, but that doesn't mean they don't have their place. We've reviewed hundreds of laptops over the years, testing for important qualities like performance, battery life, and display quality — and we've found that Chromebooks consistently excel at performance and reliability.

You can find Chromebooks from Google, HP, Lenovo, Acer, and many others, and we've dug through them to put together this roundup of the best Chromebooks on the market. They're incredibly accessible devices, and for the right person, a Chromebook can be the best laptop in terms of value.

Read more