Google Fiber delivers broadband internet on behalf of the search engine giant, and now they are doubling down on service expansions in North Carolina. In 2023, Google expanded its Charlotte service to Concord and Huntersville. Now in 2024, they are focusing on the Triangle and its cornerstone cities Raleigh and Durham, and the town of Chapel Hill.
Google Fiber Coverage
It’s no secret that Google is heavily invested in improving internet coverage worldwide, and Google Fiber is just one way they do that. While wireless internet tech is widespread today, fiber-optic cables remain the fastest way to transmit online data. Google Fiber does this for the US, but other broadband companies do this all over the world. All of that infrastructure is vital for every modern digital application that uses the internet.
Today, we use the internet for a lot more than just communication. It’s also used for work through videoconferencing, and the same tech is used for entertainment in industries like iGaming. For example, streams are used to host a variety of activities controlled by human dealers on sites like the Paddy Power Live Casino, which is based in the UK. While streaming is an increasingly popular way to find online content, it relies on the household having a connection in the first place. Without a working internet connection, basic online services like Google search are inaccessible, along with the services that can be found through it. That’s where the internet service providers come in to lay fiber-optic cables in the areas their clients live.
At present, Google Fiber isn’t accessible abroad. Instead, it serves nearly 40 regions in the contiguous United States with more mainland expansions planned in the future. When they roll out their service, they prioritize the largest metropolitan areas of the country. Now that they are more than a decade into the rollout, the service has made its way to Charlotte and North Carolina at large.
Google’s Long-Held Expansion Plan
For those in the know, this expansion plan is far from new. In 2014, after finishing its first expansion projects in Austin, Texas and Provo, Utah, more expansions were announced for state capitals across the south. Namely, Atlanta, Nashville, and Raleigh were set to receive new fiber networks that will allow residents in these cities to access Google’s internet service. The expansion plan included Durham and Church Hill, which makes up the Research Triangle alongside Raleigh. To cater to more North Carolina citizens, the plans also included Charlotte since it’s the most populous city in the state.
These plans were put on hold in 2016, due to administrative reshuffling within Google Fiber. The expansion resumed in 2022, with the Charlotte expansion starting in late 2023. That leads us to now, where the rest of North Carolina is set to get the same treatment from Google’s infrastructure subsidiary.
Speaking about the renewed expansion efforts, Google Fiber East government and community affairs head Jess George said: “In the past year, we’ve launched construction in Garner and Apex, and Hillsborough just announced. We’ve continued to construct in Raleigh and Durham and have largely completed Morrisville, Cary, Chapel Hill and Carrboro.”
George also revealed that certain projects in The Triangle were slowly being worked on during the expansion pause, “just at a slower pace.” She also added that Google Fiber is wary of how much construction they do in a single area, due to its disruptive nature, so it’s working with local municipalities to spread the burden. Digital equity also played a role in their new expansion plan, as they want to ensure that low-income and infrastructure-starved parts of the state get their opportunity to experience fast fiber-optic internet.
