The Google Fiber race is on again. Having successfully brought its gigabit Google Fiber service to Austin, Provo, Utah, and both Kansas Cities, Google said Wednesday that it will bring the service to nine more metropolitan areas across the United States—including one of the largest tech hubs, the San Francisco Bay Area. In total, 34 cities are eligible.
In a blog post Wednesday, Milo Medin, VP of Google Access Services, named the Atlanta, Portland, San Jose, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, San Antonio, Nashville, Charlotte, and Raleigh-Durham metropolitan areas, and the 34 cities that they contain, as targets. Through 2014, Google will work with these cities to see if the fiber integration is feasible. “We’re going to work on a detailed study of local factors that could affect construction, like topography (e.g., hills, flood zones), housing density and the condition of local infrastructure. Meanwhile, cities will complete a checklist of items that will help them get ready for a project of this scale and speed. For example, they’ll provide us with maps of existing conduit, water, gas and electricity lines so that we can plan where to place fiber.”