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We believe in the power of great internet, but we also know that, for most of us, our internet is only as good as our Wi-Fi.


My husband and I both work from home, and I am … not quiet … when I talk on video calls. So, I’ve set up my laptop as far away from my husband’s desk as possible, which also means I’m four thick walls away from my router. That doesn’t make for great Wi-Fi. And I know I’m not alone. Wi-Fi issues are a common complaint for customers, regardless of their internet service provider.


No one wants to have to think about their internet. At Google Fiber, we want internet that just works for you anywhere in the home, and for most people that means Wi-Fi. So we’ve been working on improving your Wi-Fi experience, starting with giving you the opportunity to use whatever router you want.


Now, you can bring your favorite router with you when you sign up for 1 Gig or change your plan to 'Use your own router' in your Google Fiber account — if you’re the kind of internet user that’s comfortable setting up and troubleshooting your own equipment.


For customers who don’t want to take on that technical responsibility, we’re still here to help with your Wi-Fi (or anything else you may need from us). You can learn more about whole home Wi-Fi from Google Fiber here.


If you’re a Google Fiber customer and have an issue with your Google Fiber service, let us know. We always want you to be able to make the most of your internet, including your Wi-Fi. (Shout out to my customer service friends answering my Twitter DMs — you’re my real MVPs.) 


We’re always looking for ways to make Google Fiber better. Great internet = great Wi-Fi, so we’ll keep working to improve that experience for our customers, whether they’re right next to their router or four rooms away.



Posted by Amanda Peterson, Product Marketing Manager






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When it comes to internet, fast is never fast enough. That’s especially true now when so many of our customers are learning, working and living nearly entirely online — all using different devices at the same time.

So we’re more than a little excited to announce 2 Gig today — bringing even more bandwidth and speed to customers in internet-intensive households who may need more than a gig to do their thing, whatever that may be.

Google Fiber launched in 2010, offering 1 Gig speeds. Back then, the average residential internet speed in the US was 7.12 Mbps down and 2.42 Mbps up (and that was a 16% improvement from the year before!).

Today, as we continue to grow in the 19 Google Fiber and Google Fiber Webpass cities across the U.S., we also continue to learn from our past and from our customers. We’ve innovated new build techniques, allowing us to build faster than ever before, and we’ve established Google Fiber as a leader in customer service.

And we’ve learned that many of us need more: more to help us work better, to help us learn smarter, to bring us gaming and entertainment in new ways, and to fuel innovation and entrepreneurship across our economy.

Why 2 Gig?

This year has made this need for more speed and bandwidth especially acute, as many of us are now living our entire lives — from work to school to play — within our homes, creating unprecedented demand for internet capacity.

2 Gig will answer that challenge. At $100 a month, it’s double the top download speed of our 1 Gig product (with the same great upload speed) and comes with a new Wi-Fi 6 router and mesh extender, so everyone gets a great online experience no matter where they are in the house.

Google Fiber networks are designed so there’s plenty of capacity to allow our customers, with the right in-home hardware, to reach 2 Gig (and even faster) speeds. Our approach to network design allows us to keep our customers connected to the fastest speeds available.

So... how can I get it?

We’re looking for people to help us test 2 Gig, starting in Nashville and Huntsville next month and in our other Google Fiber cities later this fall. Game changers, super users, and families who need more from their internet can join the Google Fiber Trusted Tester program to be among the first to put the extra speed to use. Our testers help us make sure we’re launching the best products and services possible for our customers, and we appreciate their help! Sign up here for an opportunity to be among the first to test 2 Gig in your city.

2 Gig will roll out to all of our Nashville and Huntsville customers later this year, with plans to launch the service across most of our Google Fiber and Google Fiber Webpass cities in early 2021.

Google Fiber brought you 1000 megabits in 2010, and we’re upping that 2000 megabits for 2020. This is just the start of many more product launches to come. Our goal is to keep delivering groundbreaking speeds at competitive prices with the customer service Google Fiber is known for.

Posted by Amalia O’Sullivan, Director of Product Management






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This post is the third installment of our Pursuing Racial Justice and Equity series, which highlights the courageous and vital work happening across our Google Fiber and Google Fiber Webpass cities to fight systemic racism and create more just communities where everyone has the opportunity and the ability to thrive.

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The Austin Justice Coalition’s (AJC) roots were planted in 2015 when a bunch of people who were crazy enough to believe that we could change the world got together and we have never looked back.

Black and brown people operate daily in a system where their voices and lives are undervalued. They are inundated with unwarranted and blatant oppression, life-threatening situations, microaggressions, and other forms of racism due to the color of their skin. AJC is a grassroots organization that addresses the oppressive dynamics of institutional racism and its effects on adults, youth, and communities of color.

We transform systems and society by building community power through policy and advocacy. Through our efforts, we have improved laws and policies where we live in regards to criminal justice and building complete communities to address the housing and homelessness crisis. Additionally, we have supported and guided young people of color to be thoughtful, unbiased leaders. We try not to do it all, but over the last 5 years, we have built an ever-evolving ecosystem of solutions, knowledge, experience, and community.

Unfortunately, there is still so much to be done.

It is not that our ideas are revolutionary. We lead the charge and keep others marching with us without allowing differences to divide us. In our work, you see a cadre of white allies. If we don’t change the hearts/minds of those whose ancestors implemented the hierarchy of race, we will never truly gain reform.

There is truly something for everyone to contribute to the movement.

Since March, there has been change in a real way, and we are thankful for the many partners who have increased their engagement in our communities such as Google Fiber. Because in reality, the biggest hurdle for communities of color is getting a seat at the table.

We have been able to create a seat by listening to the community and being unafraid to be their advocate. Similarly, we created Higher Learning, with little funding, because we had a vision of a program curated specifically for Black and Brown kids that tackles the inefficiencies of our school system. We have made it to year 3 of this program.

Our hope is that the data and statistics will change in the number of people of color in jail, their ability in housing ownership, and increase rates of education attainment and professional achievement, not only in Austin, but across the country. When we see this, we are able to turn our attention to changing and transforming more systems. Often our work can seem narrow, but for us, the work we are doing can truly shift and break up what seems like indestructible systems. Our work will and can have a ripple effect. Our long-term vision is to one day dream of taking our work on a global scale. But before we can do that, our team will have to uproot the deep seeded effects of the 1928 zoning laws and racism of Austin, while tackling Texas, and America.

So when we are truly successful here, there will be more work on the horizon for us. Join us.

Posted by Chas Moore, Executive Director, AJC




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This post is a part of our Pursuing Racial Justice and Equity series, which highlights the courageous and vital work happening across our Google Fiber and Google Fiber Webpass cities to fight systemic racism and create more just communities where everyone has the opportunity and the ability to thrive.


United Way of the Greater Triangle (UWGT) has the bold mission to eradicate poverty and increase social mobility through the power of partnerships. With that mission, we serve a four county region in North Carolina in which more than 200,000 residents experience poverty every day.

For 133 years, United Ways across the country have served those crushed under the weight of impoverished environments. That service has looked, felt, and sounded like charity: direct social services in response to existing, immediate needs. Yet the issues have not gone away; they have gotten worse and that’s especially true for Black and brown communities.

The next 133 years demand more. In a time when everyone is making public statements about their stance on race in this country, we believe that “well done is better than well said.” United Way of the Greater Triangle is up to the challenge to act. We believe in:

  • An orientation to justice where we look for solutions that attack the root causes and don’t just deal with the effects of poverty.


  • A re-imagination of philanthropy where authentic partnerships with marginalized communities mean they retain the right to design the solutions for their lives rather than have approaches imposed on them.


  • An acknowledgment that the burden of poverty does not rest on the shoulders of the impoverished but on the systems with which they interact and the people that hold those systems up.


  • An anti-racism community.




The “what” won’t change. We have known the key levers of poverty for decades: early childhood care and education, literacy, high school graduation, career readiness, affordable housing, mental health, and food.

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United Way of the Greater Triangle’s investment strategy honors the importance of these focus areas by dedicating two of the three core pillars of our work to supporting children and parents from Cradle to Career and acknowledging that safe and affordable housing, access to nutritious meals, and homes free of violence and substance abuse lead to Healthy Families.

The third leg of our community impact strategy, Equity In Leadership, promises to empower marginalized leaders, amplify the stories of community that celebrate strength and don’t exploit deficits, and prepare the entire community for the full inclusion and success of people of color and women. Shout out to Google Fiber for their support of our initial grant-making investment in this pillar: 10 To Watch.

The positioning of equity as a stand-alone pillar, in the center of our strategy, also means that equity sends tentacles into our Cradle to Career and Healthy Families strategy. That looks like:



  • Pulling apart community level data connected to the key levers of poverty to focus our work on the parts of our community that are suffering the most.


  • Critically analyzing our own funding portfolio and internal operations through an equity lens. Through that same framework, we’re building and implementing new policies, procedures, and grant-making processes.


  • Asking our nonprofit partners equity-centered questions, not as a punitive measure, but as a way to determine how UWGT can leverage its assets to support and further the equity journey of our entire region.




Our equity lens tells us where disparities exist. Our anti-racism lens tells us why. With the recent launch of the Anti-Racism Community Fund (with support from partners like Google Fiber), United Way of the Greater Triangle continues its evolution into becoming the organization that our community needs now and in the future. We cannot live our mission and the Triangle cannot live into its desire to be anti-poverty without being an anti-racism community.

The Anti-Racism Community Fund will:

  • Invest in the leadership development and ideas of local community leaders.


  • Invest in scalable, anti-racism solutions aimed at systems perpetuating systemic racism.


  • Invest in the training, education, and awareness building that increases the capacity of the entire community be anti-racist.




A fundraising campaign alone is not enough to achieve the long-term, sustainable results we need. United Way of the Greater Triangle is proud to join the existing anti-racism movement, providing visibility to our audience and access to our platforms, adding to a narrative campaign that engages the community in solution oriented conversations about race, changes interpersonal interactions and shifts decision making to support the inevitable success of the entire community.

No matter where you are when you read this, you have the opportunity to take your next step in this movement. “Google” anti-racism and learn about the movement. Identify the leaders in your area that are leading the movement. Ask your local United Way about how equity is shifting the way they show up in community. Boldly adjust your personal or organizational mission and focus to be who your community needs you to be.

Posted by Nick Allen, Chief Program Officer, United Way of the Greater Triangle






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