Google Fiber Blog

And they’re off! -- Google Fiber launches signups in Louisville

Wednesday, October 18, 2017

While there may be arguments over the best bourbon for a Mint Julep or which horse is going to win the Derby, one thing Louisvillians can agree on is their city is on the rise. Louisville continues to move up the national rankings for population growth, job growth, and overall well-being, and with Google Fiber, internet speed is next!
As we’ve designed and constructed our Louisville network, we’ve seen firsthand what that excitement, energy and spirit of innovation can do. Louisville is the fastest we’ve ever moved from construction announcement, which happened in May, to signing up customers. Starting today, residents in the Portland, Strathmoor and Newburg neighborhoods of Louisville can sign up for Google Fiber’s superfast Internet, and take the first step in making the Internet their own.
We made the announcement this morning at the Neighborhood House in Portland. As our first Community Connection in Louisville, we are providing the organization with a gigabit connection to support their mission of breaking the cycle of poverty for children and families in the Portland community. In each Google Fiber city, we’re proud to work closely with the local community and partner with nonprofit organizations that focus on digital inclusion, STEM education, and supporting entrepreneurs and nonprofits, and we’re looking forward to doing even more in Louisville.
Residents in Louisville can sign up for our Fiber 1000 or Fiber 100 products. Fiber 1000 ($70 a month) is our superfast 1000 Mbps service, which allows customers to stream, play, and surf all they want across all their Internet-connected devices without issue. Fiber 100 ($50 a month) is a very fast and reliable connection perfect for budget conscious access to the Internet.
Google Fiber enables you to access all of the Internet, including taking advantage of all the ways you can get news, entertainment, and live sports -- Netflix, Hulu, HBO Now, and now YouTube TV. For customers interested in watching live TV with YouTube TV, you can sign up through Google Fiber for $35 a month. YouTube TV offers cable-free live TV from Louisville’s local stations -- ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC -- and other popular cable networks like ESPN and AMC, along with a cloud DVR with no storage space limits. For more information on YouTube TV, visit tv.youtube.com.
And superfast Internet speeds make it possible to do whatever you want online at the same time, including playing online games, uploading and downloading files, and video chatting.

Van art by Ashley Trommler; photo by Stephen Sugg

Louisville is a national leader when it comes to creating an environment where innovation can thrive. As the first city to approve One Touch Make Ready policies and to enable other efficient deployment methods, Louisville has been at the forefront of national policy on these issues because the city understands the importance of access and connectivity for all Louisvillians. We want to thank Mayor Greg Fischer and the Louisville City Council for their vision and leadership throughout this process. We can’t wait to see the impact that ultra high speed broadband can have in Louisville, on everything from economic growth to education to public services and more.
As we continue construction across the city, we’ll bring our service to more Louisville residents and neighborhoods. To sign up for availability updates and future announcements, visit www.fiber.google.com/cities/louisville.
Posted by Scott Pluta, Head of Business Operations, Louisville

Google Fiber celebrates its first ‘Fiberversary’ in Morrisville

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

This fall we celebrated our first year in service of customers in the Town of Morrisville, right in the heart of the Triangle. This ‘Fiberversary’ was a chance for our team to say thanks to the folks who got us started, and celebrate with 10 days of events to show our appreciation.

From rock climbing with the Triangle Rock Club to a Made With Code demo at the East Meets West Festival, we’ve had a blast simply saying “thanks” for allowing us to be a part of this community. Here’s a few more of the ways we shared our gratitude:

Surprised early risers with free donuts from Rise Biscuits
Made new friends at the movie theater with free movie tickets and Google Fiber t-shirts
Hosted our neighbors at Park West for our Pop-Up Party
Treated a few Morrisville residents to Sunday brunch
Celebrated “Taco Tuesday” with residents at the Bradford apartments
Led a rousing senior tech day - streaming video was all the rage!

Since our beginnings in Morrisville, we’ve expanded to parts of Raleigh, Durham, and Cary, and we are working to connect new areas every day. Our Fiber Space in Glenwood South is a vibrant community space that has played host to gatherings like the East Coast Game Conference, S.T.E.M. Family Days, the Cureat app launch, and even a reunion for our friends from the 518 West Italian Cafe.

We are continuing to invest with a variety of partners like the Kramden Institute, Triangle Literacy Council, and the Girl Scouts of the Coastal Pines to impact the digital divide in a meaningful way. Earlier this year, we opened our first Gigabit community in Raleigh to provide free gigabit access to public housing residents, with more to come as our network expands.

We’re so thankful for the chance to serve these communities, and look forward to celebrating many more Fiberversaries with you as our business in the Triangle grows.

Want to get the latest news on what’s happening with Google Fiber in Raleigh-Durham? Sign up for updates at www.fiber.google.com/cities/triangle.

Posted by Tia Bethea, Community Impact Manager, Raleigh-Durham

Coming Soon -- A New Approach in Louisville and San Antonio

Wednesday, October 04, 2017

Google Fiber’s chief aim is to bring superfast Internet to more people.
This has been our mission since our beginnings in Kansas City, because we believe that it can have a huge impact in a community -- video conversations in real time with no delay; homework at the speed of light; downloads and uploads within minutes, not hours. A lot can happen when you aren’t waiting for your Internet to catch up.
Over the years, we’ve worked to innovate the entire process. We’re not afraid to try new things as part of our normal way of doing business -- focused on the end goal of getting superfast Internet into people’s homes. From faster, more efficient new methods of deployment to our commitment to transparent pricing to ensuring our customer service is top notch to our approach to community impact work in each market, we’re always looking for the best way to serve our customers.
With that Google Fiber spirit in mind, we’re trying something new in our next two Fiber cities. When we begin serving customers in Louisville and San Antonio, we’ll focus on providing superfast Internet - and the endless content possibilities that creates - without the traditional TV add on.
If you’ve been reading the business news lately, you know that more and more people are moving away from traditional methods of viewing television content. Customers today want to control what, where, when, and how they get content. They want to do it their way, and we want to help them.
Whether it’s through YouTube TV, Hulu, Netflix, or more specific targeted services -- there are so many ways to watch what you want, when you want it. And Google Fiber’s superfast Internet allows customers to make the most of all these streaming choices by providing the bandwidth to use multiple devices and apps at the same time. So you can catch every minute of the big game at the same time you’re playing that online multiplayer game, or stream a new movie while editing and uploading your home videos.
For our existing markets with TV as a part of their product offerings, nothing is changing -- although more and more of you are choosing Internet-only options from Google Fiber. We’ve seen this over and over again in our Fiber cities.
As customers look for new options that better reflect what they value in their entertainment, sports and news, Google Fiber will also experiment with new ways to deliver that value and opportunity. Louisville and San Antonio -- our superfast Internet service will be there soon. We’re excited to see what you do with Google Fiber in your own way.
Posted by Cathy Fogler, Head of Sales and Marketing, Access

To our customers, and our customer service representatives, with love

Monday, October 02, 2017

It's National Customer Service week. With that, we wanted to say a big thank you to our customers for choosing Google Fiber as your Internet service provider.
We believe there’s a better way to provide service in this industry. Every day, we receive feedback from you telling us what you love and what we can do better. This is an invaluable part of our growth as a business. We aim to do more of what you love (like offering installation appointments, not windows and cleaning up after ourselves when we visit your home) and continue to improve in the areas that you don’t (like repairing damages caused during construction). If you’ve got something you want to share with us, we hope you won’t hesitate to reach out.
The customer service and support we provide each day is a team effort. Happy Customer Service week to all our frontline agents in our Fiber Spaces, to our online and phone agents in our contact centers, and to our technicians in the field in each Google Fiber city! Thank you for the work that you do, for the professionalism you show every day and for giving our customers the service they deserve. We appreciate it every day, not just this week. Posted by Caroline Dowling, Google Fiber Customer Service Director

Google Fiber now available in over 3,000 apartment and condominium communities

Thursday, September 28, 2017

A little over five years ago, Google Fiber fiber launched a different kind of internet and TV service to the first single family home in Kansas City. Pretty soon after that, we heard from apartments and condos interested in partnering with Google Fiber to bring superfast internet and TV to their residents. To make this happen, we’ve worked closely with national and local real estate developers, property managers, and condo boards to bring Google Fiber to multi-family communities across the United States.
Today, we’re excited to report that we have activated Google Fiber service in over 3,000 multi-family communities across our Fiber cities, plus an additional 300 Community Connections, which, in partnership with local nonprofit organizations, provide Internet access and digital literacy tools to digitally divided communities.
We didn’t do this alone -- our real estate and organizational partners made this a reality for their residents. It’s a collaborative effort -- working with each property, we identify the best way to serve their residents from the beginning of construction to installation and our ongoing service. Each project is unique. We start with the design process and continue to ensure that managers can use Google Fiber as a way to differentiate their property to prospective residents. Google Fiber has brought thousands of eyes to real estate partner websites, and we’ve been lucky enough to be the chosen provider for internet for thousands of their residents.
Building on these partnerships, we’ve recently expanded our commitment to become a technology partner by launching the Google Hardware Program. This program is designed to help properties capitalize on the smart home ecosystem by offering preferred pricing on Google Home, Nest Thermostats, and other devices. It’s still early, but we are very excited to help real estate partners explore the future of the “connected home” in apartments and condos.
And we're lucky to work with some incredible partners across our markets:

Sound like something you might want to check out? If you are looking for a place to live with Google Fiber, check out the Google Fiber Apartment Finder to find a property in your area. If you are a developer who would be interested in becoming a Google Fiber partner, please tell us more about your property here, and a member of our team will reach out to you.
Thanks to all our real estate partners across all of our Fiber cities — we look forward to bringing superfast Internet to more buildings and their residents! Posted by Lee Bienstock, Head of Partnerships

Back to School in the Tar Heel State

Thursday, August 31, 2017

This week, North Carolina students headed back to class, and their teachers were ready for them. Beyond arranging their rooms, hosting open houses and preparing lesson plans, teachers are seeking out the tech resources that will make their classroom an environment that is better able to equip students with 21st century skills.
Thanks to a partnership with the Kenan Fellows Program at North Carolina State University, two elementary school STEM educators spent this summer as interns at the Charlotte and Raleigh/Durham Google Fiber offices, experiencing what it’s like to work at a tech company and taking new ideas and experiences back to the classroom.
Michelle McElhiney, a 5th grade teacher at Oakhurst STEAM Academy in Charlotte, and Amelia Robinson, 3rd-grade math teacher at Envision Science Academy serving students in Raleigh and Wake Forest, both dedicated their summer to this project.
Their efforts resulted in two extensive STEM-focused projects, featuring new career-connected curricula and "STEAM To-Go" mobile learning labs or kits. The STEAM To-Go labs pair technology resources like Chromebooks, Makey Makeys, and stop-motion animation tools with lesson ideas and online resources for use in public school classrooms. There are two different mobile lab options. Teachers can choose between "Circuitry and Music" and "Animation and Coding." Each kit comes with a teacher’s guide that helps the teacher get up to speed on the technology, offers links to online tools and apps, makes recommendations for how teachers can connect the projects to state-mandated outcomes and "literacy links" so that they can enhance the grade-level goals in their classroom.
These Google Fiber funded kits are available at no cost to elementary and middle school teachers at the STEM and STEAM academies in Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools starting in the fall of 2017. STEAM To-Go mobile labs, which include hardware and educator guides, can be borrowed by teachers for one week, allowing educators to integrate them into classroom activities, link them to literacy extensions and align them with grade level standards. The experiences are designed for kids who have little or no coding experience; educators can easily modify the program for students ranging from lower elementary to middle school.

To launch this project, Google Fiber hosted a back to school reception earlier this month at our Charlotte Google Fiber Space for teachers at STEM elementary and middle schools. More than 60 educators and administrators attended to learn about the STEAM To-Go mobile labs, have fun with hands-on STEM activities and celebrate the start of another school year together.

Stay tuned for more news about upcoming teacher leadership trainings in Raleigh and Durham. Let’s start the school year full STEAM ahead! By Tia Bethea in Raleigh-Durham and Jess George in Charlotte, Google Fiber Community Impact Managers

Marking the moon's march across the sun

Monday, August 21, 2017

Like most of America, Google Fiber was totally fascinated by today’s total solar eclipse.
From coast to coast, we saw our offices and Fiber Spaces do something special to mark the moon’s path across the sun, whether heading outdoors to take it all in or sharing NASA’s live feed with our customers over Fiber’s superfast network in our Fiber spaces.
Two our Fiber Cities were in the “Path of Totality” -- in Nashville (100%), we marked the moment on the roof of our office -- with approved glasses and moon pies and, of course, Music City’s own eclipse playlist. Kansas City (100%) stayed on the ground floor, heading en masse to the City Market Total Eclipse Party together to check out the show.

We didn’t let a smaller percentage of eclipse keep us from enjoying the unusual site, either. In Charlotte (98%), we hosted a party with all the appropriate accoutrement.
FullSizeRender (2).jpg

And in Durham (92.6%), we also took to the roof with their glasses to see what we could see.

No matter where we watched, it was a pretty great show. Thanks, moon! Thanks, sun!

Until next time. . . in 2024!

1,000,000 is a good place to start

Friday, August 11, 2017

We take customer service quite seriously around here. In fact, to ensure that we hear your feedback and deliver the service you deserve, we collect survey responses for every interaction with our customers across all Fiber markets — whether you’ve had a visit from one of our installers or needed a repair in your home, or you hit us up on the phone, online, or even through Twitter or Facebook.
So we’re really excited today to celebrate our one millionth satisfied customer survey response!

Over the past five years, we’ve been so lucky to be able to provide superfast Internet to incredible people across each of our markets. What you think really matters to us (in fact, it’s one of our central values), whether we’re doing well or have some things we need to improve.
We appreciate and use that feedback to get better. Thank you to the many of you who told us about your experience. Here are a few of our favorite customer responses that have their own take on a million:
I had about 23 million questions, and [my agent] helped answer all of them. I actually had FUN talking to a customer service representative for once in my life! (Kansas City, KS)
I was a little bit freaking out because a technician was at my apartment installing the unit while I was at work and everything was just a mess. But the agent was very patient with me and even though we ran into a million other technical issues, helped so much. Gold star for customer service, today! (Provo, UT)
It was quick and easy. I was very very impressed and I have loved the quality of my product. I would definitely recommend google fiber a million times over again! (Kansas City, KS) This is just the beginning — we’ll keep working to improve because the most important number in 1,000,000 is 1. We focus on the individual, and we know that we’re only as good as our next interaction with you. And while we hope you won’t need us, know that if you do, we’re here for you. We want to make sure that you are satisfied customer 1,000,001.Posted by Leanna Moskowitz, Customer Service Experience Program Manager

Inspiring the next generation of thinkers and doers

Friday, July 14, 2017

Google Fiber’s community partnerships across the country are essential to maximize the potential of superfast Internet in the local communities we serve. These partnerships are the bedrock of Google Fiber’s approach to community impact programming and digital inclusion investments , and we want to share an update on our most recent efforts in our Fiber cities in the Southeast.
Today, in Huntsville, we announced three new community partnerships: first up, Rocket City’s inaugural Community Connection at the Harris Home for Children, a nonprofit organization that has been helping foster children and families in Huntsville since 1954. Kids at the center will now have access to free superfast Internet service in the recreation building where they’ll have an opportunity to discover, create, and dream about where their lives can go.

And in the coming weeks, we’ll also connect Dr. Richard Showers Community Center and Girls, Inc. of Huntsville to superfast Internet, allowing them to better meet the needs of their constituencies and help them really take off.
Earlier this week, just a few hours north in Nashville, we celebrated the grand opening of a new computer lab with the Northwest Family YMCA in Music City. With 15 new computers, the lab will help local residents further their education and find better jobs, enable kids to communicate with teachers, and provide life enrichment resources for everyone in the area.
Additionally, we’ve partnered with the YMCA of Middle Tennessee to offer programs like Create Your World, which teaches kids how STEM and coding skills can be fun along with educational -- creating music and mini-films using stop motion animation. And we’re also offering programs with the YMCA that teach digital literacy and other online skills at different levels and for all different ages, including adults — everyone needs to be able to navigate the internet safely and to harness its power to reach their full potential.

And finally, in Atlanta, Google Fiber has teamed up with the Centers of Hope, an initiative launched by the City of Atlanta in 2013 to convert unused recreation centers to state-of-the-art learning facilities with both academic and recreational programs. We now have four labs up and running in Adamsville, Rosel Fann, Pittman and SouthBend.
Mayor Kasim Reed helped unveil the first center in May at Adamsville Center of Hope. The labs are equipped with new desktop computers, printers, Chromeboxes, and Google Cardboard, and lined with new furniture, artwork and murals. They’re used by kids for after school programming, including homework, coding classes and Boys & Girls Club activities. Plus, adults and seniors are using the labs and equipment for job search and digital literacy classes.

While the labs aren’t connected to Google Fiber yet, we hope to make them part of our Community Connections program as we bring service to more neighborhoods throughout Atlanta.
Digital inclusion has been central to the mission of Google FIber since our beginnings in Kansas City. As we’ve grown, we’ve learned important lessons from local leaders about how to tackle this issue in more meaningful and impactful ways, customized to the needs of our communities. We are proud to partner with the organizations and residents who are tirelessly working to make the community a better place, and we look for ways to support and amplify the work they do every day. We firmly expect great things from this next generation of innovators, developers, engineers, and entrepreneurs wherever they come from, including Huntsville, Nashville and Atlanta.
Posted by Daynise Joseph and Fabiola Charles Stokes, Community Impact Managers

Official Blog

And they’re off! -- Google Fiber launches signups in Louisville

Google Fiber celebrates its first ‘Fiberversary’ in Morrisville

Coming Soon -- A New Approach in Louisville and San Antonio

To our customers, and our customer service representatives, with love

Google Fiber now available in over 3,000 apartment and condominium communities

Back to School in the Tar Heel State

Marking the moon's march across the sun

1,000,000 is a good place to start

Inspiring the next generation of thinkers and doers

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