Google Fiber got our start in Kansas City over a decade ago. A lot has happened in the area since then — we’ve won a World Series AND a Super Bowl — and KC has evolved as a hub of tech innovation. We’d like to think Google Fiber played a role in that (the tech piece, not taking credit for the city’s sports successes although we’re big fans!). 

Our KC team celebrating the 2020 Super Bowl

As Kansas City has grown, so has Google Fiber’s network. We’ve continued to build out our network across both sides of the state line, serving Brookside, the Northland, Overland Park, Argentine, Lee’s Summit, Olathe, Raymore and many many more neighborhoods and municipalities across the metro area. In fact, just last month, Belton’s City Council approved Google Fiber to start work in their community, and we expect to start offering service there by the second half of next year.

KC is our hometown and we’re always looking for new ways to connect with our community and our customers. In addition to our Westport Road and KC North locations, we recently opened another retail option for customers, a kiosk in Oak Park Mall, which will make it even more convenient for people to check out new products and talk to our service team. The new space opened earlier this month and is open during regular mall hours.

Google Fiber is also continuing to make it easier for more people in Kansas City to access quality internet and put it to use to improve their lives. This year, the Google Fiber sponsored NTEN Digital Inclusion Fellow, Katherine Maloney, Director of Workforce Development at Goodwill of Western Missouri and Eastern Kansas, to support new programming to help their clients take advantage of digital opportunities in our areas and build skills for the current economic environment. Katherine is focusing on expanding digital skills training opportunities to assist people with online navigation of their career goals. Goodwill uses a Mobile Workforce Unit to bring digital skills training to where the people are. Additionally, Goodwill is adopting the NDIA Digital Navigator Model to support local residents with gaining access to devices and broadband internet in their homes.  

No matter how much things change, one thing is certain: Kansas City is the center of all things Google Fiber. We look forward to keeping things up-to-date with our community and continuing to build our next chapter here. (And if you missed it last week, check out our own Carlos Casas in our career site launch video and learn more about our open positions - join our team!)

Posted by Carlos Casas, Head of Sales; Andy Simpson, Head of Technical Operations; and Rachel Merlo, Government & Community Affairs Manager.

Google Fiber is launching a new careers site (fiber.google.com/careers) to make it easier for candidates to find the right role and to provide more information about what it’s like working here. Browse the latest job listings for both local and remote roles, along with information about our workplace culture and perspectives from our employees. 

Finding the right people is one of the most important tasks any company takes on, and that’s true at Google Fiber. We’re committed to ensuring we can provide our customers with an incredible product paired with exceptional service, and having a great team is essential to doing that. And it doesn’t hurt that we like each other quite a bit, too. But don’t take our word for it, check out the video below to hear from team members across the country about what makes Google Fiber the right place for them (and potentially for you, too!)

It’s been awhile since we’ve given an update from Nashville, but we’ve been busy during that time building out our network in new neighborhoods. Currently, residents in The Nations, Charlotte Park, Whitebridge, Burton Hills, Woodmont, Sylvan Park, North Nashville, Edgehill, East Nashville, including Lockeland Springs, and many downtown apartments and condominiums can sign up for Google Fiber’s 1 Gig and 2 Gig service.

We’ve also amped up our construction efforts over the past year. Our crews are busy laying fiber in several neighborhoods across the city, and we expect those activities to increase further as we head into the new year.

Our community work has also continued to grow as our service area expands. In 2021, we’ve supported many local digital equity efforts to help connect even more of Nashville to the resources they need. These include:

• Providing a matching grant for Nashville Public Library Foundation’s Giving Day, which raised over $18,000 toward community outreach and engagement
• Supporting the YMCA of Middle Tennessee’s STEM efforts for kids across our region
• Sponsoring Project Return’s Digital Inclusion Fellow to help formerly incarcerated citizen build their digital skills to navigate today’s world
• Funding the Nashville Public Education Foundation’s Digital Equity Fund
• And supporting the Center for Nonprofit Management’s Racial Justice Fund.

As Google Fiber continues to grow in Nashville, we’re looking for ways to connect more people to great internet. 2021 has been our biggest year of growth yet, and we don’t intend to slow down now that we’re in stride.

Posted by Lauren Johannesmeyer, Head of Sales; Jesse Quirion, Head of Metro Technical Operations; and Daynise Joseph, Government & Community Affairs Manager.

As a gamer (a new gamer, but a gamer nonetheless), I know how having a strong internet connection matters to every aspect of gaming. From waiting for an update to download, to playing in a battle royale with friends, to live streaming gameplay, even the seemingly smallest details of your internet connection are critical to playing your best. So, when I got a chance to talk to some Google Fiber customers for our latest campaign, I knew we could trust gamers to highlight what matters with their internet. 

We reached out to gamers, streamers, and game developers on social media who were already using Google Fiber 1 Gig. Then, we hooked them up with Google Fiber 2 Gig and a year free of service to share their insights and experiences gaming over our fastest internet plan.

That’s how we met Jordan, a gamer, streamer, and professional goofball (his words) who lives in Kansas City, MO. And Morgan, a gamer, streamer, makeup artist, and plant mom who lives in Charlotte, NC. And Pathra, a gamer, streamer, and dog mom who lives in Atlanta, GA. And Kartik, a game developer, gamer, and home cook who lives in Atlanta, GA. (And a bunch of other fantastic gamers in all of our cities that we wish we could ALSO have a camera crew follow around.)

All of them were excited to share their experience having Google Fiber as their internet company — because having fast, reliable internet makes a tangible difference in their professional and personal lives. So yes, gamers are internet connoisseurs. But they’re also diverse, multi-faceted, and have incredible stories to tell, even beyond gaming. We hope you’ll enjoy hearing from them as much as we did.

Jordan and Kartik’s stories are now live on YouTube, and keep an eye out over the next few weeks to learn more about Morgan and Pathra. Follow us on social media (YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) for updates on when these go live.

Posted by Talia Bootz, Google Fiber Creative and Social Content Manager 

We’ve been checking in with our teams across the country as we build out our networks in each city. Next stop — San Antonio! 

Going faster

We’ve been patiently waiting in San Antonio for our chance for 2 Gig, and we’re excited to say that the wait is over! Customers in many parts of our San Antonio service area can now sign up for 2 Gig service, offering up to 2000 mbps downloads and up to 1000 mbps uploads for $100 a month, with no annual contracts, no data caps, with installation and equipment included. (Currently, we’re working on the technical requirements to make 2 Gig available in some parts of our San Antonio network that were built first.)

Growing faster

This year, working closely with our local government partners, we’ve picked up the pace of our construction efforts significantly. Currently, residents in parts of the west, east, north, and northwest sides of San Antonio can sign up for Google Fiber service, along with those living in apartment and condo buildings in the Medical Center area. Construction crews are at work to fill in areas on the northeast, northwest, and inner westside, including Leon Valley, St. Mary’s University, Stone Oak, and Encino areas. Once we’ve completed these portions, we’ll continue building out across the city including communities on the south and west sides.

Giving back

Even before we first offered internet service to customers in San Antonio four years ago, we’ve been working with local organizations to address digital equity and inclusion efforts in the city. We recently announced an expansion of our support of Libraries without Borders’ Wash and Learn Initiative to a second laundromat, and we’re excited to be able to extend this even further, with new locations on the west and south sides of San Antonio coming soon.

This year, Google Fiber is also sponsoring the San Antonio Public Library’s NTEN Digital Inclusion Fellow, Angelina Cortes. Angelina will spend a year focusing on growing the library’s digital inclusion efforts.

Next steps

During the pandemic, we’ve all learned how critical quality internet is to quality of life. We hear you, San Antonio. You want more fiber, and you want it now. Our construction teams are moving steadily, and we intend to keep building. In fact, we expect 2021 to be the biggest build year since we started constructing our network in San Antonio.

Want the latest information on service availability in your area and what’s happening with Google Fiber? Sign up for our email list.

Posted by Mark Hendrix, Head of Sales; Jhon Guarin, Head of Technical Operations; and John-Michael Cortez, Government and Community Affairs Manager

Over seven years ago, we started serving our first customers in Atlanta. Since then, we’ve been growing our service area — though slower than some (including us!) would have liked. Lately, we’ve been making progress on finding ways to connect more Atlantans to fast, reliable internet. Right now Google Fiber is available to tens of thousands of Atlantans from College Park to Woodstock, concentrated in apartments and condos, and we’ve recently started actively expanding our network in single-family residential neighborhoods.

Growing as Atlanta grows

Metro Atlanta is one of the fastest growing areas of the country and much of this growth is through new apartment communities. Until now, Google Fiber focused on expanding where Atlanta is growing, and focusing on bringing service to dense, multi-family apartments across the city. To do this, we used a different kind of build in Atlanta than in other Google Fiber cities, leasing unused fiber from 3rd parties who specialize in providing the sort of flexibility required to serve such a broad geographic footprint. As a result, our service area has been focused on hundreds of multifamily communities across Metro Atlanta. While we continue to expand our multi-family presence (if you’re an Atlanta property owner or manager who would like to get your community signed up for Google Fiber, let us know), we’re super excited to have construction crews building out our network in more neighborhoods in Atlanta.

We have been serving a significant number of single family homes from Sweet Auburn to Garden Hills, and we’re currently finishing our construction in those neighborhoods to be able to offer quality internet to more residents in those areas. And we’re not stopping there! Once we’ve completed those builds, construction efforts will move north across the city. Keep an eye out for door hangers in your neighborhood or sign-up for our email list for the latest on our activities in Atlanta.

Serving our community in the time of COVID

The last year was an incredibly trying one for all of us. Google Fiber has always worked with local community organizations to help advance digital literacy, inclusion, and equity as well as racial justice. This includes The Southern Center for Human Rights, 100 Black Men of Greater Atlanta, The Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta, and the DeKalb County Public Library system. We’re working to make sure that in Atlanta and beyond, residents have access to the necessary hardware and skills to be able to take advantage of the opportunities online. Access to the internet alone is not enough. 

As the city works toward recovery, we’ll continue to look for new ways to help Atlanta address digital equity issues and to connect as many customers to fast, reliable internet. We’ve got a lot more in store for Atlanta. If you are interested in helping connect more Atlantans to great internet, consider joining our team!

Posted by Spencer Walston, Head of Sales; Lisa Speller-Martone, Head of Metro Technical Operations; and Daynise Joseph, Government & Community Affairs Manager

The best TV is online over a great internet connection. Google Fiber has been upgrading our Fiber TV customers to our new TV experience since June, and now it’s even easier to get the best TV available! Customers can now get their own Chromecast with Google TV and upgraded home Wi-Fi with Google Wifi through their Google Fiber account (and also sign up for the streaming service of their choice) in just a few clicks.

Traditional TV is expensive and outdated, so we're working to upgrade our customers to streaming options, and will ultimately retire Fiber TV in all our markets. (Don't worry, current TV customers will get 90 days notice before their plan changes!) We want to make sure everyone gets the best TV for them, so we’re offering different options to meet different needs. And as always, our great customer service team is standing by to walk our customers who need extra assistance through this upgrade. We know change can be hard, and we want to make this transition as painless as possible for all our TV customers. 

We’ve already completely upgraded Fiber TV customers in Nashville, Huntsville, Salt Lake City, and Provo. Raleigh-Durham, Charlotte, and Irvine will finish their transitions by the end of September, with Austin and Atlanta following at the end of November. While we don’t have a timeline for Kansas City just yet, right now is the right time to make the switch! Everyone deserves better TV, and we’re ready to help our customers make it happen.

Posted by Liz Hsu, Director of Product Strategy

Today, we’re starting to place Google Fiber in the City of West Des Moines’s conduit network. Once we’ve completed the first segment, customers in some areas of the northeast corner of the city will be able to sign up for 1 Gig or 2 Gig internet service. 



If you are interested in getting updates on availability in your neighborhood, sign up on our website (and in the meantime, make sure your house is ready to go, sign up for your free connection to the conduit network at the city’s Plant the Speed website.)

We’re also very excited to be the presenting sponsor of the Chamber of Commerce’s inaugural Raccoon River Rally. We’re looking forward to meeting you there (and seeing your awesome cardboard boats!)

Posted by Sarah Sparks, West Des Moines Customer Acquisition Manager

Google Fiber works with incredible partners across the country working to make digital equity a reality in our communities. Back in 2019, we shared the innovative work of Libraries Without Borders US (LWB US) in San Antonio, TX, and now we’re thrilled to welcome Victoria Becker, Communications and Engagement Associate, to provide an update on those efforts through the pandemic and beyond. LWB US is a non-profit organization that delivers access to information, education, and cultural resources. From parks in Baltimore to laundromats in San Antonio, LWB US designs innovative tools and programs that meet people where they are with the resources they need most. 

Libraries Without Borders US (LWB US) has been working to promote access to information in underserved communities across the country since 2015. Fundamental to our work is designing and implementing innovative programs that reimagine libraries, often by transforming nontraditional spaces into hubs for community learning and engagement. With this mission in mind, we took our work to the laundromat, prompting the birth of the Wash and Learn Initiative (WALI).

Why laundromats? The average laundromat user has an income of $28,000; 1 in 4 individuals in this income bracket do not have access to broadband internet. By partnering with local libraries and organizations, LWB US brings not only books, computers, and internet connection directly to laundromats, but also digital skills trainings and curated resources that promote literacy, digital access, health education, legal information, and other issues. In doing this, LWB US could ensure that community members had easy access to critical resources, all while doing their weekly wash.

In March 2020, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we completely reimagined our work and shifted gears in response to swiftly growing needs. We designed and implemented the ConnectED Technology Kit program: an initiative to provide our constituents with a backpack equipped with a laptop, mobile hotspot, and a curated educational resource packet to be used at home. Last year, LWB US distributed over 120 kits to families in San Antonio outside Wash and Learn Initiative laundromats, including our newest WALI laundromat Laundry Rey’s.

We’re building on the work we did last year outside by bringing programming back inside. LWB US recently reinstalled the bookshelf at Laundry Rey’s, the first hint of WALI reinstall. With the support of Google Fiber, we are able to safely reimplement programming in our San Antonio WALI laundromats to continue to serve our community. Check out the video below see this incredible program up close and hear from our staff and stakeholders:

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For more information about WALI or LWB in San Antonio, contact Lisa Alvarenga, our San Antonio Project Coordinator.

Posted by Victoria Becker, Communications and Engagement Associate, Libraries without Borders - US.

Next up in our city update series, we travel to Charlotte and see what’s happening with our Queen City team. 

Hello! It’s been a while since we’ve checked in from Charlotte, but we’ve been on the move across the metro area. In addition to offering our high-speed internet service in North & South Charlotte, and apartments and condos in Uptown, we’ve recently started serving Hidden Valley and we’re continuing to expand our network in various parts of the city.

We’ve also recently started expanding our network to some Charlotte adjacent communities. We’re excited that Concord announced last week that Google Fiber is coming soon, and construction efforts are also already underway in Matthews. We hope to serve our first customers in both these cities by the end of the year.

Helping our community connect

In Charlotte, we’ve always worked closely with our libraries to help more people get online. This year, we’ve taken that show on the road, collaborating with Project OutPour and Hope Vibes to equip their mobile hygiene units with Wi-Fi, through the coordination of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation. The project will be launching its second location soon, allowing our local homeless population to do laundry, shower, and get online in one place. 

This year, we also joined select members of Tech Rising to launch the Tech Idea Incubator Fund, a micro-grants program intended to seed innovative ideas from nonprofit organizations that are committed to eliminating the digital divide and fostering digital inclusion and equity.

Google Fiber is proud to invest in Digital Charlotte’s Digital Navigator Program, dedicated to ensuring that everyone in Mecklenburg County can find and connect with digital inclusion resources. 

What’s next?

As you can see, we’ve got a lot going on in the Charlotte metro area. We are continuing to grow the Google Fiber team across all of our teams and cities. If you are interested in potentially joining our team, check out our job listings at fiber.google.com/careers.

Posted by Spencer Walston, Head of Sales; Jason Smith, Tech Lead; & Jess George, Government & Community Affairs Manager.