It’s been nearly a year since many businesses and schools began working from home because of the COVID pandemic. And while many of us have learned new ways to use technology and the internet to keep in touch (while staying apart), many families are still facing challenges accessing the resources and tools they need to work or study online. Digital inclusion is key to creating a more equitable world, and Google Fiber continues to work with organizations across the country to address this challenge.

Since 2016, the National Digital Inclusion Alliance’s (NDIA) has hosted the Net Inclusion Conference annually, bringing together digital inclusion practitioners, advocates, academics, businesses, and policymakers to share their knowledge and learn from one another. This conference has been a consistent catalyst for innovation and best practices across the digital inclusion community, and Google Fiber is proud to support Net Inclusion again this year. This time the conference will feature a new virtual format over a series of weeks rather than concentrated into just a few days, which will allow even more people to participate.

The 2021 Net Inclusion Conference series includes eight one-hour webinars, every Wednesday from April 7th through May 26th. These webinars are open to any and all advocates, policy makers, academics and boots-on-the-ground folks who want to learn more and help expand the conversation around digital inclusion. We hope some of you’ll join us! If you are interested, register here.

Posted by Daniel Lucio, Community Impact Manager

As 2021 gets properly underway, we’re checking in with each of our city teams. Starting with Austin, over the next few months we’ll be posting updates from our teams across the country, sharing what’s happening in each community and what our local customers can expect next.

The last month has been a challenging one for our city, and in many ways we’re still recovering as a community. Like many of you, our Google Fiber Austin team spent days without power, water, heat, and, yes, internet. 

As a team, we are as committed as ever to making sure our customers stay connected as we continue to build out our Google Fiber network across the city. In fact we recently launched service in Allandale, North Loop, Mueller and North Shoal Creek, and soon we’ll be live in other parts of North Austin. We’re also continuing to connect buildings across the city of Austin with Google Fiber Webpass (if you’d like us to connect your apartment or condominium, let us know). 

Read on to find out more about what’s happening with Google Fiber in Austin.

New Fiber Space opens on South Lamar



Today, we are opening the doors to our brand new Fiber Space at 701 South Lamar Boulevard with easier access and parking for our customers, something you’ve told us you wanted. The new Fiber Space will be open from 10 AM to 3 PM Monday through Saturday. Safety is our number one priority, and our customer retail experience is designed to keep our customers and our team members happy and healthy — including customer occupancy limits, on-site social distancing and masks and enhanced cleaning protocols.

South Lamar is an incredibly vibrant neighborhood, and we’re looking forward to getting to know our neighbors. We hope you’ll come visit us, and check out our incredible mural by Austin artist, Catie Lewis, and local photography by Austin Fiber team member, Rose Lichtenfels.



While we’ve closed our downtown retail space to the public, the building will remain our main office for our growing local Google Fiber team. We recently welcomed John-Michael Cortez as our new Government and Community Affairs Manager to lead our community efforts in Austin. John-Michael brings a deep knowledge and love for his hometown of Austin to his new role. We’re hiring for several roles in Austin — we’d love to have you join our team.

HACA launches a new Gigabit Community

This month we’re proud to help the Housing Authority of the City of Austin (HACA) welcome new residents to Chalmers Court East, our 10th Gigabit Community in Austin. 110 residents will receive a gigabit internet connection at no cost. Through our Gigabit Community program, Google Fiber currently provides the option for free gigabit internet to more than 875 families in HACA communities across Austin.

We’re also continuing to bring free gigabit internet service to new Community Connections partners. Over the past year, we’ve connected four new community partners in Austin, including OutYouth, Oswaldo “A.B.” Cantu Pan American Recreation Center, American Institutes for Research (Southwest Educational Development Corporation) and Austin Groups for the Elderly (AGE) of Central Texas, which brings the total to 36 Community Connections across Austin. These incredible organizations are working to help our neighbors everyday, and we’re proud to be able to help connect them and the people they serve. 

Continuing to grow our network

We’re continuing to build out our network, rolling out service in new areas every few weeks. Currently, you may see our crews in North Shoal Creek, Allandale and Rosedale. As usual, we’re working to make sure that residents are kept up-to-date on any activities happening in their neighborhood. If you have questions about construction in Austin in your community, give us a call at (877) 454-6959.

Austin will always be weird, and Google Fiber is working to make sure Austin is wired. To stay up-to-date on service in your area, check availability for your address and join our email list. 

Posted by the Austin Fiber Team

If you’ve been following Google Fiber, you know that we believe the best TV is online. While many of our customers have already made the switch from traditional TV to streaming services, some have hesitated to take the leap, even though Fiber TV service hasn’t kept up with all the features streaming services offer. Luckily all you need to get the best TV today is great internet, which is something Fiber TV customers already have.

Google Fiber is continuing to look for new ways to help our customers make the switch to streaming TV — but we need some of you to tell us how we can do it in the best possible way. We’re looking for a few Trusted Testers to try out our new TV upgrade experience, starting in Huntsville in March.

Testers need to be existing Fiber TV customers, who are ready to take the next step to an upgraded streaming TV experience, including a whole-home WiFi upgrade with Google Wifi, a seamless streaming experience with Chromecast with Google TV, and set-up for the streaming service of your choice (including an option for a free trial of YouTube TV). While we’re rolling out testing in Huntsville early next month, we’ll be bringing the TV upgrade experience to our Fiber TV customers across the country later this spring. Sign up to join our Trusted Tester program for this or future opportunities. We know you deserve better TV, and we’re working to bring it to you.

Posted by Liz Hsu, Director, Product Strategy

In honor of Black History Month, Google Fiber is celebrating the work of our Black at Google Fiber Employee Resource Group. Since its chapter launch in 2017, the group has focused on a number of areas ranging from digital inclusion to STEM education to improving the representation of people of color at all levels within our business. While George Floyd’s killing galvanized a nation, Employee Resource Groups like Black at Google Fiber are channeling that energy into a movement for change within the workplace and beyond.

We sat down with the two Black at Fiber co-leads to learn more about what it takes to lead an Employee Resource Group’s journey for social justice, racial equity and self care during an incredibly challenging year.

What does this year’s Black History Month mean to you?

Black History is more than a month — it is a legacy. It is about the contributions and sacrifices made by those before us but it is also about recognizing that Black+ people are a part of creating the narrative that will mark our place in history. When we planned past Black History Month activities we focused on bringing in people from which we all could learn. This year we centered on bringing within ourselves a stronger sense of purpose. We provided a platform to discuss the complexities of voting in the United States and the importance of civic participation. Our members also learned more focused and intentional wealth building strategies that included understanding cryptocurrency and how understanding blockchain can future proof finances.

Since last year’s Black History Month, how have you led your members through the tragic events happening in places like Louisville, KY, Minneapolis, MN, and others?

A few days after we closed our offices due to COVID-19 in March 2020, our focus was captured not just by the pandemic, but also the repeating tragedy of Black lives brutally taken by law enforcement in public view. Incident after tragic incident, many of us began to feel numb and certainly fatigued. Many of our Black colleagues felt the same and there was a clear need to create spaces that were psychologically safe for us to be in community with each other, mourn with each other, and affirm each other. And we needed the support of the larger Google Fiber organization to have real conversations about racism and ask questions on how it was impacting Black+ Google Fiber employees and our business.

As we have adjusted to doing all our meetings virtually, the availability of guest speakers increased since physical logistics were no longer a roadblock, which meant we heard from incredible speakers from across the country. Additionally, our Equity, Inclusion and Diversity lead coordinated training with thought leaders in the field of race relations that helped to foster conversations across our organization. These went well beyond our ERG to engage parts of our communities that were not talking about these issues previously. 

We also hosted our first Black at Fiber Virtual Summit. This two-day event aimed at better understanding how our community investments were driving real, tangible change, on both the racial and social justice fronts, in cities like Chicago (a Google Fiber Webpass city). And we dove into the topics of Black Fatigue, White Fragility, Allyship and the importance of building trust for greater transparency and progress on racial equity. As a group, this helped us to understand the power of our lived experiences and how those experiences manifest in our work and outside-of-work lives.  

Are there any lessons learned that you would like to relay to other leaders of Employee Resource Groups or the broader community?

First and foremost, take care of yourself. The conversations can be exhausting but are a necessary part of the journey. Listen to ERG members and keep their needs and feedback top of mind in all you do and plan. Our leadership position affords us the opportunity to amplify the voices of the people we represent. At Google Fiber, we know that we’re playing an important role in making sure we’re creating a safe space and ensuring that the conversations are happening. Our voice (as co-leads) could be viewed as protest in service to tough conversations. When you take on the role of leader of an ERG in your workplace, you can feel like you are making yourself more vulnerable. The general thought is that while risks of protesting at work are not as severe as getting arrested or being physically injured, there is a very real risk of limiting your career in some way. But the rewards are also very real. Your influence to drive positive change is needed now more than ever, and organizations are realizing that these efforts are key to driving long term success. So keep pushing for the change of Black+ and other underrepresented groups, and being the leaders your company needs now.

Posted by Black at Fiber Co-Chairs, Daynise Joseph, Government and Community Affairs Manager, Nashville, Huntsville and Atlanta and Terrence Brooks, Head of Sales, Nashville

[02/08/21 UPDATE: As of today, new and existing Google Fiber customers in Austin, Irvine, and Raleigh-Durham have access to our 2 Gig service. More download speed gives everyone in your household the opportunity to do what they need and want online. We can’t wait to see where 2 Gig takes our customers.]

When we announced that we were testing 2 Gig service, we were not prepared for such an enthusiastic response. Thousands of you across all our cities signed up to be trusted testers. We appreciate those who were able to take the time to help us make 2 Gig launch ready.   

Today 2 Gig is available in Utah (both in Provo and Salt Lake City) and  in Atlanta, joining Nashville and Huntsville. New and existing customers in those areas can choose between our very fast flagship 1 Gig service at $70 a month or our even faster 2 Gig service at $100 a month.

With 2 Gig, everyone in your household can do what they want online simultaneously — whether that’s video conferencing for work or school, streaming their favorite show, or playing a video game — and still enjoy the fastest speeds your devices are capable of, even in larger, heavy internet use households with advanced devices. You can definitely take advantage of our 2 Gig service without running out and buying new equipment, but 2 Gig is so fast that many existing devices aren’t built to keep up with that speed individually yet (only newer devices with built-in Wi-Fi 6 capabilities can reach top wireless speeds).

If you are ready to rev up to 2 Gig and want to make sure that you have that top speed on a device (and the speedtest to prove it), make sure your equipment is ready for it. Wired connections are the fastest connections, so with both 1 Gig and 2 Gig, you’ll get your fastest speed connected via an ethernet cable. Unless you have a device with an ethernet port designed for 2.5 Gbps or higher, you’ll need an 2.5 Gb or faster adapter (or dongle) and a Cat6 ethernet cable connecting your device to the router to get the top speed. Also, make sure you’ve done all your system updates so your devices are running at their fastest.  

If all this sounds like something you want to try and you are in one of our other cities, follow us on Facebook , Twitter , or Instagram to get the latest news on where and when 2 Gig is available. We’ll be rolling out 2 Gig in other cities shortly — as fast as we can to make your internet even faster. 

Posted by Scott Tenney, Head of Sales, Salt Lake Valley, & Jonathan Arp, Head of Sales, Atlanta

    

At Google Fiber, we’re always excited to see how our customers put our gigabit internet to work for them. Throughout 2021 we’ll be featuring customers from across the country who represent the amazing endeavors of those who see the opportunity of the internet and are using it every day to make the world better, more interesting, kinder, and more just. 



 

“Why can’t we harness the marketplace to prompt thoughtfulness and push back the tide of social injustice in America?”

This is the problem I saw and my purposeful lifestyle company Civic Saint is a part of the solution. I designed my inaugural collection of accessories and apparel to uplift those advancing the Black Lives Matter, Equal Rights, and Voter Rights movements. Customers’ purchases also perpetuate the push for equity in America through donations to appropriate organizations. 

The idea for Civic Saint came to me while I was completing treatment for head and neck cancer at the University of Kansas Medical Center in January of 2020, but it all came to a head during this summer’s unrest. As a Black, gay man, I was tired of waiting for change to come; and it became clear to me that I was not alone.

My aspiration for Civic Saint is to not only create a company that promotes an affirming, inclusive society through thoughtful products and partnerships, but also one that prompts reflection and conversation about each of the movements our inaugural collection honors. Additionally, Civic Saint is a social enterprise that advances systemic change by donating a portion of its profits to organizations that fight for racial and social equity, including The Equal Justice Initiative, The Bail Project, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and Troost Market Collective. Civic Saint’s mission and impact align with principles my late parents, Cecil and Goldie, instilled in me and demonstrated throughout their lifetimes as public servants and individuals. 

In creating my products, I’m also partnering with Black, Indigenous, and People of Color for my core services from Black, female-owned She Prints It in Atlanta, Georgia to Black, nonbinary Kansas City creative Fawn Lies to woman-owned AlphaGraphics as well as allies like Nick Ward-Bopp who co-founded Maker Village. The path to change includes being intentional in who you choose to do business with regardless of the size of your business — asking whether your choices reinforce economic disenfranchisement or uplift a multifaceted cadre of service providers and people.

From inception, Google Fiber and Google Business Solutions have underpinned the construction of my dream to start a business. From Google Fiber gigabit internet service to domain and email hosting to designing on my Google Pixelbook to payment processing, and so much more. Google’s suite of products and services have allowed me to establish a meaningful, professional company about which I can be proud and to do it quickly.

I believe right now has the potential to be as pivotal a time as the 1964 Freedom Summer, but only if we can drop the divides and remember our shared humanity and equal rights. In short, the call to do more to create a just, equitable society is upon all of us and we must answer it now.

To learn more about Civic Saint and shop our continually expanding collection, visit www.CivicSaint.com or follow us @CivicSaint on Instagram and Facebook.

Posted by Godfrey Riddle, Founder & President of Civic Saint

People need faster, more reliable internet, but they also need faster, reliable customer service. At Google Fiber, we see customer service as an integral part of what we offer when customers buy internet service from us. We listen to our customers and we respect your time — we know in a perfect world you’d never have to think about your internet, so we want to make sure that when you do have to reach out to us, the experience is as painless, and, perhaps even as pleasant, as possible.

Changing how customers engage with an internet company goes hand in hand with increasing speeds for us. From install appointments, rather than windows (with a 95% on time rate that we’re working to improve even more), to real people answering our phone lines to easy-to-understand bills, we’re focused on reducing friction for customers at every point in the process. Our agents pick up the phone fast (30 seconds or less is our goal — last week we were at  just over 10 seconds), with no scripts, rather than an endless stream of robots.  

Our automated processes also focus on making our customers’ lives easier. No one likes bills, but you should be able to understand what you are paying for with no mysterious fees or extra charges. And when things do go wrong, we try to help set it right, like by proactively crediting our customers if there’s an outage — you don’t even have to call to report it.

This was where we started, but we’re never satisfied with the status quo when it comes to our customers. We know we need to keep evolving and improving to ensure our customers always receive the best internet and customer service out there. We’re working to improve our customer experience on all fronts. When you need us, we’re making it easier for you to contact us; and when you’re comfortable troubleshooting for yourself, we’re making it easier for you to do it.

And we’re proud that our customers seem to appreciate these efforts. In 2020, our customers ranked us #1 in the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) for internet providers in a number of categories, from Call Center Satisfaction to Ease of Understanding Billing, and also rated us tops in the PCMag Readers Choice Winner in 2020, stating “what Google Fiber offers is absolutely the very best an ISP can do.”

But we know we can do even better, so keep expecting more from us. The past few years have been a journey for Google Fiber. We’ve focused on what we are truly great at — providing great internet speeds at great prices while helping our customers find better TV options. We’re helping customers get started with video streaming services from multiple popular providers. And we’re launching in new cities in different ways.  But no matter what’s next for Google Fiber, our customers will be at the center of it.

Posted by Catherine Duncan, Head of Service as a Product

Many students have been navigating virtual learning since last spring. Google Fiber has partnered with organizations and school districts in our cities to help make it easier for students and their families to connect and continue their learning journeys, whatever form that may take. Today, we’re excited to share a guest post from Malena Juarez, a senior at Lincoln College Preparatory Academy in Kansas City, Missouri, who attends the Kansas City MLB Urban Youth Academy Virtual Learning Program. The Kansas City MLB Urban Youth Academy is one of our Google Fiber Community Connections, which provides gigabit internet to the organization at no cost.

When I first came to the Academy, I was amazed by the sight of the facility and the huge softball field and baseball fields. It was a dream come true. To me, the Urban Youth Academy is a place of opportunity and growth. It has now become my second home. The UYA will forever have impacted my life positively, giving me a place to grow as a softball player and as a person in my community. The wonderful people I’ve met there have always been such great role models, who only wanted to see me succeed. 

I started playing softball when I was 10 years old, but had no idea what softball really was. But, as the years went by, softball then became my life. Moving to Lincoln Prep, I found out there was no team. It was always hard not being able to play the sport you love going into high school. During my junior year, the UYA helped tremendously by allowing our softball team to use their field and equipment to practice and play our games. I was finally able to play the game I love at the place I love. It meant so much to me and was very influential to me; I wanted to give back to my community just as the UYA did. 

Being a senior during this very interesting year of 2020 has been very difficult for me. As the oldest of three kids at home trying to manage everything being virtual, I felt very overwhelmed from making sure lunch was made at a certain time and homework was being done, to answering what felt was a million questions about school from my sisters and brothers. I always believed my senior year was going to be very stress-free, but with our current situation, it has been the exact opposite. 

Just as I was feeling it was all too much, I received a text message explaining what seemed to be a cool program —  the Virtual Learning Program at the UYA. The program currently has 50 high school students enrolled from 17 different schools in the KC area. It runs Monday-Friday, usually from 7 am-4 pm which allows us to complete our schoolwork and participate in baseball and softball workouts each day. 

At first, I thought it probably wouldn’t work out for me to attend, because where would my younger siblings go? That’s when I had a conversation with the Director of the Virtual Learning Program explaining the circumstances. Thankfully, they worked with me, and now my younger brother attends the program as well. So now, there is no worry about missing school to make lunch, and I’m only answering one question here and there! The only focus I have is school, and it is easier to do the best that I can. 

Coming to the UYA for the Virtual Program, Google Fiber’s high speed internet has been a tremendous help to me and my siblings. We are now able to go throughout the day with no problems with our connection. We can now focus on our school work.. It means a lot and has taken a great deal of stress off our shoulders. 

I just wanted to say a great big thank you to the Urban Youth Academy, the Virtual Program, and Google Fiber for being a great help to me. It has made such a huge impact on me and others. You have made me feel important and valued, and I could not thank you enough. 

Posted by Malena Juarez, Senior at Lincoln College Preparatory Academy 

Back in August, Google Fiber announced our plan to test 2 Gig service in Huntsville and Nashville. Today, we’re excited to announce that 2 Gig is now widely available in those two cities.

New and existing Google Fiber customers in Huntsville and Nashville now have the choice between our proven 1 Gig for $70 a month — plenty of speed and capacity for everyone and their devices all at the same time — and our even faster 2 Gig for just $100 a month — ready for power users, the latest devices, and advanced smart homes that use lots of internet.

I’m especially excited to be able to share 2 Gig with our customers. Over the last few months, my family has been testing 2 Gig in our home. And what made 2 Gig right for us was how everything we could do with 1 Gig is now faster, wired and wireless, even when we’re doing a lot — which is pretty much all the time in our house. With 2 Gig, I’ve never worried about massive file downloads, even while I’m on a video call with my boss and my husband is on a Zoom call in the next room, and then, all of the sudden, our home music system asks for an update. I know we can easily handle it all at once.

My husband works in IT and he can set up new machines in minutes, with the progress bar on a new Mac saying, “this may take up to an hour” only to be wrapped up before he gets back from our kitchen with a cold soda. He’s saved the day with last minute file transfers that none of his coworkers could have done from home.

And it's not just for work. As an occasional gamer, I love that when I do get time to play, I’m not waiting for massive system updates to finish or worried about network lag, but just trying to hold my own competitively. Even my house gets in on 2 Gig. Our smart lights, Wi-Fi speakers, 4K TVs, sprinkler system, and Wi-Fi-connected pellet smoker are staying connected without competing with us or each other for bandwidth. And we’ve got the peace of mind that there won’t be any data caps to stop us from doing even more.

2 Gig comes with the Google Fiber Multi-Gig Router, which uses Wi-Fi 6, the latest Wi-Fi standard. While it’s true that right now, we only have a few devices that have Wi-Fi 6 capability, we’re making the most of the hefty Wi-Fi speed provided by the tri-band Mesh Extender. And we’re ready for whatever comes next. (Who knows? I think my dog might be jealous of the Wi-Fi feeder that spoils my daughter’s cat.)

1 Gig is great for my family, and 2 Gig just gives us more of what we love. So, whether your home needs 1 Gig fast for everyone or 2 Gig faster for a few more everyones, Google Fiber is happy to get the right internet for your household, at the right speed for you.

(And if you're not in Huntsville and Nashville, don't worry. You can still sign up to test 2 Gig and other products through our Trusted Tester program.)

Posted by Amanda Peterson, Product Marketing Manager

Charlotte-based muralist Rosalia Torres-Weiner believes art can sustain us during difficult times. As a self-titled “Artivist,”  Rosalia seeks to find creative ways to use art to bring people together, advance justice and equity, and inspire more good in the world.

In October, Rosalia created her response to COVID-19 called “Art Essentials,” which is part scavenger hunt, part public art project and part emergency relief. Rosalia created and hung 100 pieces of her original art in public places like bus stops, laundromats, apartment complexes throughout Charlotte’s Latinx neighborhoods. Folks who found the art discovered another surprise: a message on the back letting them know the painting also served as a voucher for a bag of essential items, including hand soap, hand sanitizer, face masks, and a $50 grocery card at local Compare Foods grocery store….and they get to keep the art!

After a few weeks, all of the art has been collected and 89 of the Art Essentials bags have been redeemed. The rest of the bags of supplies have been donated to the families at Charlotte Bilingual Preschool. Families who discovered the art were thrilled to get both an original painting and assistance with grocery basics at a time when inspiration and help are needed most.

Google Fiber is proud to support Art Essentials, along with a HUG micro-grant from Charlotte is Creative and support from Compare Foods. We continue to partner with local organizations focused on connecting our communities for good.

Posted by Jess George, Government & Community Affairs Manager, North Carolina