Is Google Fiber Coming to North Carolina Soon?
Google Fiber is one of the most sought-after hook-ups in the country. The search giant’s fiber optic program offers great Internet speed at not terribly high prices, providing a solid alternative to the frequently evil ISPs that most cities have to deal with. A new report indicates that the company may be bringing Fiber to a new state in the union: North Carolina.
According to a post on ZDNet today, Google has events scheduled to take place in Raleigh and Charlotte, North Carolina on January 28, while they’ll be coming to another city, Durham, the next day. What those events will cover is up in the air, but the post links back to local media coverage that Google is using the events to talk about the coming Fiber roll out, and that they’re talking to local engineering firms and “drill crews” about helping with the installation process.
So what’s the upshot here? As Google continues to expand its Fiber program, it puts the onus on more traditional ISPs to upgrade their infrastructures. It wasn’t too terribly long ago when broadband of any kind was prohibitively expensive – these days it’s not nearly as costly. Google’s efforts to upgrade the country’s Internet access is a positive step to make solid speeds and connectivity a matter of course.
On the other hand, the roll out is going ever-so-slowly. At this rate, it’ll be a long, long time before Fiber makes its way to all the cities that might want it (all of them). In the meantime, the rest of us are more or less stuck dealing with the likes of Comcast, Century Link, Time Warner, and the rest.