Google confirmed plans on Wednesday to continue to roll out its high speed Internet network in San Antonio and Austin despite retracting in other markets.
Google Fiber first announced plans to come to Austin in April of 2013. The service is currently live there and continues to roll out to different parts of town.
“Google Fiber isn’t leaving Austin. We’re still thrilled to be your neighbor and continue to offer superfast Internet to residents,” according to a statement from a Google Fiber spokesperson.
In August of 2015, Google announced plans to provide its “Gigabit” Internet network to San Antonio. Google’s network is about 100 times faster than what most broadband users currently experience in the city.
“Google Fiber will continue in San Antonio. We can’t wait to deliver high-speed connectivity to San Antonio residents, and are even looking at innovative new ways to deploy, as enabled by One Touch Make Ready and a new construction method we’ll be piloting called Microtrenching. In Austin we’ve already seen a 10x improvement in digging speed (i.e., laying Fiber) with no strikes to utility lines using microtrenching,” according to a statement from a Google Fiber spokesperson.
But overall, Google Fiber is winding down plans for some of its new markets.
“In terms of our existing footprint, in the cities where we’ve launched or are under construction, our work will continue,” according to a blog post form Craig Barratt, SVP, Alphabet and CEO of Access. He also announced plans to step down as CEO of the Google Fiber operations.
Google plans to pause operations in its “potential Fiber cities,” those cities where its been in exploratory discussions, according to Barratt.
“In this handful of cities that are still in an exploratory stage, and in certain related areas of our supporting operations, we’ll be reducing our employee base,” he wrote in the blog post.
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