Take me out to the ballgame! It’s that time of year, and Google Fiber is ready for a little baseball. Today, Bob Kendrick, President of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, highlights the work of the organization and some of their newest digital projects (both in the physical museum and online) that Google Fiber has helped the organization complete. Check out all the details below, and batter up! 

The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (NLBM) is the only museum dedicated to preserving and celebrating the rich history of African-American baseball and its profound impact on the social advancement of America. Our mission grabs the hearts, minds, and imaginations of the thousands of people who come visit us each year. The creation of the Negro Leagues is a wonderful story of triumph based on a simple principle: if I can’t play in the major leagues, I’ll create a league of my own. The Negro Leagues were established in Kansas City on February 13, 1920, out of the old Paseo YMCA, just around the corner from where our museum operates today. 

Now we’re coming full circle, back to the very building that gave birth to the story we are charged with preserving. Now, that same Paseo YMCA is being converted into an education and research center in memory of the late, great Buck O’Neil. Google Fiber is one of our sponsors for this project, providing high-speed internet to the building, creating better access for the many community members who will be using this space. Our new Buck O’Neil Education & Resource Center will offer expanded exhibit opportunities, classroom space, and event space, and an interactive baseball experience that examines the math and science of baseball. 

In addition to this new resource center, with Google Fiber’s support, we’ve developed several online exhibits and avenues for all audiences to engage with the Negro Leagues’ history.

Barrier Breakers

Our Barrier Breaker exhibit is an online exhibit that chronicles the players who broke the color barrier for each major league team. We all know the heroic story of Jackie Robinson, but many other integration pioneers’ stories have not been widely told. The Barrier Breaker exhibit aims the spotlight at those lesser-known integration pioneers and commemorates the 75th anniversary of Jackie Robinson stepping onto Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. 

Negro Leagues Beisbol

The Negro Leagues Beisbol exhibit celebrates the little-known, but very profound, connection between the Negro Leagues and Spanish-speaking communities. Spanish-speaking athletes were also not allowed in the major leagues, so many of them found sanctuary playing in the Negro Leagues and many Negro Leagues players found sanctuary playing in Spanish-speaking countries. This created a brotherhood between minority players, and they bonded through baseball. The online exhibit celebrates this cultural connection. 

And we’ve got so much more going on. We recently released a new animated series in partnership with the MLB, called Undeniable. I had the honor of narrating three animated shorts spotlighting the incredible impact of the Negro Leagues and the women who were a part of that history, along with the story of how Jackie Robinson became the chosen one to break the color barrier — you don’t know the full story, so make sure you check it out!

And just in time for Opening Day 2023, NLBM will debut on the PlayStation video game, MLB The Show 23. For the next five years, we’ll introduce eight new Negro League players to the game each year, accompanied with mini documentaries. You’ll be able to step into the shoes of these historic players and learn more about their stories and accomplishments.

Since NLBM’s inception in 1990, we’ve grown from a grassroots one-room office to being recognized as America’s National Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in 2006. Now, with the help of Google Fiber, we’re continuing to expand our impact whether you can visit us in person in Kansas City or just learn the rich history of the Negro Leagues online in the comfort of your home. This is one story that never gets old, and we’re excited to continue to find new ways to tell it!

Posted by Bob Kendrick, President, Negro Leagues Baseball Museum

It’s time, Arizona! Beginning today, we’re offering service to our first Arizona customers in the Westwood neighborhood of Mesa. They will also be the first Google Fiber customers with the opportunity to experience our 8 Gig product, our fastest internet ever. 

We marked the occasion by treating some Mesa residents to breakfast and coffee at Renegade Coffee, including Vice-Mayor Francisco Heredia, who represents the Westwood area, and Council Member Jennifer Duff. Thanks to everyone who came out to celebrate with us.

For the first time anywhere, residential customers in Mesa can sign up for Google Fiber’s 8 Gig service for $150 per month. 8 Gig offers symmetrical uploads and downloads of up to 8000 Mbps with a wired connection, along with a Wi-Fi 6 router (which allows for up to 800 mbps over Wi-Fi) and up to two mesh extenders. Or residential customers can choose one of our other fast, reliable products — Google Fiber’s flagship 1 Gig service for $70 a month, 2 Gig for $100 a month or 5 Gig for $125 — ALL of these offer symmetrical uploads and downloads. No matter what the household needs, we’ve got the right speed to meet it. Local businesses can select either our new Business 2 Gig service for $250 per month or Business 1 Gig for just $100 per month. 

This is just the beginning for Google Fiber in Arizona. We’re continuing to build out our network in Mesa, and will start construction later this year in Chandler. As new segments are completed, we’ll offer service in those neighborhoods. Residents who want to keep up on the construction process or service availability in their area can sign up here.

Posted by Ashley Church, General Manager - West Region

When we announced plans to build a fiber network in Omaha, Nebraska, in September, we also started talking to surrounding communities about bringing high speed internet to their residents. We’re happy to share that we’ve taken the first step to doing just that in Council Bluffs, Iowa, which is just over the state line. Council Bluffs joins West Des Moines and Des Moines as the third Google Fiber community in Iowa.

Tonight, the Council Bluffs City Council approved a license agreement that paves the way for us to build a fiber-to-the-home network in their city. We’re getting started on planning and engineering now, with the goal of starting construction late this year and serving our first customers in Council Bluffs next year.

Alphabet has been a part of the Council Bluffs community for over a decade, with the Google data center they announced back in 2007. Google Fiber is looking forward to being part of the next chapter of Council Bluffs’ story, connecting residents to fast, reliable internet for years to come. If you want to keep up on what’s happening in Council Bluffs, sign up here. 

Posted by Rachel Merlo, Head of Government and Community Affairs - Central Region

Today, we’re excited to feature an update from Ann Kvach, Program Officer for the Community Foundation of Huntsville’s Digital Inclusion Fund. As the founding donor to the fund, Google Fiber is proud of the incredible impact the grantee organizations have in Northern Alabama.

At the Community Foundation of Greater Huntsville, we get to play the part of matchmaker; we connect generous people and businesses with the boots-on-the-ground nonprofit organizations in our Huntsville community.

Our community impact work has always been rooted in collaborations with local organizations working in their communities on digital equity issues. With the support of Google Fiber, the Institute for Local Self Reliance and the Digital Inclusion Alliance of San Antonio recently hosted a digital equity bootcamp program to empower other local organizations to take action.

In today’s world, there are few things more essential than staying connected. Whether it’s working from home, distance learning, staying connected to friends and family, scrolling the web or taking advantage of telehealth, Internet access is vital.

For 90% of Americans, being online has become second nature. But, for tens of millions of Americans, high-speed Internet connectivity is a luxury they either can’t afford or access, making life considerably more challenging to navigate. 

At the Institute for Local Self Reliance, we have a vision of helping communities become thriving, diverse, and equitable places to live, work and enjoy. One of the ways we do this is through our Community Broadband Networks Initiative. This initiative supports locally rooted, democratically accountable broadband networks that provide fast, affordable and reliable Internet access to all Americans.

In January, we partnered with the Digital Inclusion Alliance of San Antonio to co-host a digital equity bootcamp in San Antonio. The full-day bootcamp focused on building knowledge and trust among local organizations so that they can engage in strategic campaigns to promote digital inclusion in their communities. Participants developed familiarity with key terms and technologies related to Internet access, engaging one another in break-out groups where they were able to share local strategies, challenges and solutions to achieve their digital equity goals.

In Texas alone, nearly 2.8 million households—totaling 7 million people—lack broadband access. Just two years ago, nearly one-third of households in San Antonio lacked a high-speed Internet connection (over 10% have no Internet access at all), among one of the worst rates of any metro area in the country. 

By hosting digital equity bootcamps, we hope to educate local organizations—providing them with the skills, relationships and expertise needed—to empower change in the community. 

Together, ILSR and the Digital Inclusion Alliance of San Antonio, are working to provide individuals with the knowledge and power to advocate for themselves and their communities to attain digital equity and ensure that everyone has equal opportunity to participate in today’s interconnected society and the economy. 

Posted by DeAnne Cuellar, community broadband outreach team lead for the Institute for Local Self Reliance, DIASA Co-Chair

Next up in our SMB series - AY Creative in Salt Lake City, a community-based digital media agency helping Utah businesses make the most of their online presence.

At AY Creative, we’re a digital media agency — but we’re also much more than that. At our core, we’re a community based organization that isn’t afraid to get involved.

The vast majority of our customers are immigrant owned businesses that don’t have the resources or time to spend on any aspect of their business pursuits that aren’t day-to-day, operational tasks. Those clients are local, Salt Lake City area businesses that span from restaurants, doctors, lawyers, nonprofits, markets, construction firms and contractors, and many others. Our job at AY Creative is to work with those small businesses and help create a digital presence and cohesive branding. Many of our clients don’t have much digital literacy to begin with, so we help them through a sort of ‘digital transformation.’ 

We help them do this in English and Spanish. When I first came to the states, language was a huge barrier for me. That’s part of the reason it’s so important to me to do the work that we do and that every employee at AY Creative is bilingual. Each one of us is dedicated to helping immigrant owned businesses thrive and learn new skills, including the importance of a digital presence. That also means that when there’s a need for help, we step up.

When businesses are really struggling, we sometimes put our resources and knowledge to use for low rates. Right now, we’re working with a couple of restaurants that have been struggling to recover from the effects of COVID. From photography of their dishes, to menu design, to building a new website, to social presence, to helping them integrate with online ordering (which is now an essential component to owning a restaurant) — we are there to walk them through a complete takeover of branding and digital marketing.

We do this work because it’s important to us to lift up the members of our community — and from a business standpoint, it’s actually been a great investment. A lot of those customers come back in more fruitful times because they remember we helped them when they needed it. Or they refer us to other businesses across the Salt Lake City area. To our team, there’s nothing better than that. 

Functionally speaking, the work we do wouldn’t be possible without the internet. We’re often downloading and uploading massive design and video files from and to the cloud, and that’s part of what makes having Google Fiber as our internet provider so important. 

From the time we signed up for Google Fiber, to the installation, to any time we’ve needed to reach out for assistance — the response time has been great and customer service has been top notch. For example, we were on a 250 Meg plan but I wanted to get us on 1 Gig. I reached out to our local rep one day and by the morning I came in the next day, our service had been fully upgraded. Our files were flying faster than ever.

The switch to Google Fiber also cut our previous internet bill in half. For us, that means a little more wiggle room to be able to help more struggling Salt Lake City businesses — and to AY Creative, that also means just about everything. 

Posted by Alfonso Ayala, Small Business Advisor, AY Creative

In 2022, Google Fiber kicked off expansion in five new states, and started the ball rolling in Mesa, Arizona, Omaha, Nebraska, and Lakewood, Colorado.  Those announcements were just the beginning. Today, we’re announcing the cities that are next up — Westminster, Colorado, and Chandler, Arizona!

Westminster, CO

Google Fiber has entered into an agreement with the City of Westminster, to provide fast, reliable internet to residents and businesses in the City. Right now, we’re working on engineering and planning for the new network. We expect to begin construction later this year and serve our first customers in early 2024. If you are interested in keeping up with our progress in Westminster, you can sign up for more information about availability and construction. 

Chandler, AZ

Last night, the Chandler City Council approved a license agreement allowing Google Fiber to build a fiber-to-the-home network to serve residents and businesses with high speed, high bandwidth internet. Construction in Chandler will start later this year with service beginning in early 2024. If you are interested in getting updates on our progress and availability, sign up for more information here. 

Stay tuned - as we head into spring the forecast calls for more internet.

Posted by Sasha Petrovic, General Manager, Southwest Region, and Ashley Church, General Manager, West Region

The next installment of our small business blog series features Tico Sports, a division of Tico Productions LLC, doing some SUPER creative work for their clients (on both sides of the field this weekend) with quality internet helping them stay connected across the country.

We’re pretty busy these days. Tico Productions LLC is a multi-lingual, full-service marketing agency in Kansas City, Missouri, that specializes in cause-marketing, graphic design, video production, creative strategy, and social media. As a piece of that work, Tico Sports provides high energy Spanish-language broadcasts for professional and collegiate sports teams — yes, including the teams currently warming up in Arizona.

So it’s vitally important that Tico Sports’ internet works as hard as our team and keeps up with the speed of the athletes on the field. At Tico Sports, our Google Fiber service keeps our live game broadcasts running in real time, and the symmetrical speeds allow our team to quickly transfer large data files for our video production work. Much of our business depends on our technology working well so that we can reach audiences quickly and efficiently. Our internet partner is a critical component to our success. 

Communication is the name of our game — we have to be able to do this constantly and consistently so that our clients get the results they expect from us. We have been in business for a decade (kind of like Google Fiber), helping our clients tell their stories in authentic ways that get people moving. Having Google Fiber (and their team) in our corner as a strategic partner really helps us come through for our clients — whether THE BIG GAME or just their big day. Regardless of the stage, our internet service helps us make our clients shine.

Posted by Delia Marin, Chief Operating Officer, Tico Productions LLC

A few of our Google Fiber teammates went to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2023 to get the scoop on what’s next in tech and to make sure Google Fiber is ready for it. Check out their thoughts on the conference and what it means for Google Fiber. 

The energy of CES 2023 was striking. It is the second year back to in person programming since the pandemic began, and it was clear that every attendee (~115,000) was fired up to get their hands on a look into the future of tech.

To set the scene: There wasn’t a single booth space empty and, needless to say, there was new technology everywhere. We spent a lot of time exploring the interactive features and getting a feel for the groundbreaking new hardware. 

Here are our key takeaways:

Devices centered around the connected home and pervasive AI was one of the main themes at this year’s CES. Smart bird feeders, robot lawn mowers, connected electric panels, 8K VR headsets (with rumblings of 12K upcoming), various immersive content experiences — these products are examples of how brands are pushing the boundaries of what we know technology to be capable of from every angle. 

To Tom Lee, a Commodity Program Manager at Google Fiber, his experience with the latest high resolution VR display felt (quite literally) out of this world as he was immersed in a virtual space flight. He also noted that Matter, a smart home interoperability protocol, is becoming predominant as it was featured in many of the large consumer brand showcases, use of Matter will help push the smart home revolution to the next level. 

While much of this technology isn’t readily available to us now, it’s evident that technology featured at CES this year will soon become standard. Which brings us to our next point. . .

Why did a team of Google Fiber folks head all the way to Las Vegas to attend CES? Think about it this way: All of that new connected home technology needs a home network that’s ready to support it. 

In order to best serve those future needs with future-proof internet, it is important to be familiar with the types of devices that are coming down the pike. That means it’s important for us to get an understanding of which applications and devices will require faster internet, and a reduction in Wi-Fi latency, so we’re able to prepare our network to handle those demands.

Potentially the most notable development for us was the introduction of Wi-Fi 7 at CES 2023. We knew it was coming, but to see it work in real time clarified the next step in our quest to bring customers internet that can do it all. 

Several vendors demonstrated the ability of Wi-Fi 7 to deliver speeds nearing 5-7 Gbps over the air, which is a huge jump forward. Tom pointed out that the highly anticipated Multi-Link Operation (MLO) feature will greatly reduce Wi-Fi latency by combining multiple radios to enhance video conferencing and gaming experiences. With previous generations of Wi-Fi, even if you had a 5 Gig connection to your home, you would also need to be connected through Ethernet cable via a 10 Gig network to get anywhere close to realizing that speed. Wi-Fi 7 opens up a whole new world for the future of wireless and multigig connections in the home.

4. Multi-gig is officially the new gigabit.

We walked away from CES 2023 more confident than ever that multi-gig internet is well on its way to becoming mainstream. From the sheer amount of connected devices in (and outside) the home, to the increased bandwidth requirements for things like working from home, streaming 8k video, and virtual reality, multi-gig will soon become a necessity in the coming years — and we’re ready to bring it to our customers. 

Posted by Nagaraj Padur, Networking System Architect; Tom Lee, Commodity Program Manager; Richard Zhou, Networking System Architect; and Nick Saporito, Head of Multi-gig & Commercial Product