Infrastructure

Google Fiber May Press Into Chicago and LA

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: December 8, 2015 8:23 pm

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 4:19 pm

In the latest threat to telco fiber initiatives and cable, Alphabet Inc.’s (NASDAQ: GOOGL) Google says it may press its Google Fiber initiative into huge cities Chicago and Los Angeles, the second and third largest metropolitan areas in America. The Google Fiber initiative is not a rational competitor in the commercial sense, which makes it all the more dangerous. For $70 a month, Google Fiber delivers 1 gigabit speeds, which other companies cannot match at that price.

Writing in the Google Fiber Blog, Jill Szuchmacher, Director, Google Fiber Expansion, said:

[I]n Chicago, fiber Internet will help bolster a fast-growing startup scene by fueling incubators like 1871, venture capital funds like Chicago Ventures and hundreds of small businesses. With the help of the city’s leadership, Internet speeds can help attract more tech talent and add to the 40,000 tech jobs that exist across the Windy City. In L.A., faster Internet may mean that indie musicians and YouTube stars can spend less time worrying about bandwidth, and more time creating their next project.

The appeal is more to small businesses, entertainers and entrepreneurs, but that does not mean the broad public cannot take advantage of the build-out.

And there are political challenges that may make a build-out challenging. Competitors are bound to lobby. However:

As we kick off our usual checklist process, we’ll work closely with city leaders to collect detailed information about each metro area. From Venice Beach to Wrigley Field, we’ll study the different factors that would affect construction—like city infrastructure and topography—and use that information to help us prepare to build a local fiber network

But the huge tech company is so far barely deterred by the challenge:

While we can’t guarantee that we’ll be able to bring Fiber to Chicago and L.A., this is a big step for these cities and their leaders. Planning for a project of this size is a huge undertaking, but we’ll be sure to keep residents updated along the way

Telco fiber and cable have something over their shoulders, and it is gaining on them.