The GFiber blog is your home for GFiber news and updates

Google Fiber works with organizations across the country to help address digital equity issues in our communities. We love to share their stories on the Google Fiber blog and hear about the impact of their amazing work from the people they serve. 

 

About the program:

Digi-Bridge and Google Fiber have teamed up to launch free virtual STEAM Lab programs designed to engage underserved 4th through 8th graders in Mecklenburg and Cabarrus Counties (including Charlotte and Concord) in a hands-on exploration of technology in the arts, coding, gaming and design engineering.

STEAM Lab arrived after Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools reported a significant decrease in Science EOG scores in 5th and 8th grade from 2019 to 2021. STEAM Lab provides an engaging learning experience hands-on, yet virtual experience for partner school students by pairing personal learning kits of materials with virtual instruction led by the student's teachers. This additional learning time for students is an effort to promote academic exploration and increased testing scores.

Today, we’re spotlighting a STEAM Lab student, I.T., who has been participating in two courses with Digi-Bridge’s Virtual STEAM Lab — the Design Engineering Process, where students learn the fundamentals of building using geometric concepts, and Art & Tech, where students learn about foundational graphic design skills, such as pixel art and stop-motion animation. Check out his experience below!  

 

Meet I.T.:

 

 

Hello, My name is Isaiah “I.T.” Twyman and I am a 5th grade student at Druid Hills Academy in Digi-Bridge’s Virtual STEAM Lab sponsored by Google Fiber. I’m 11 years old and enjoy playing video games, coding and soccer after school. 

I live off in Northwest Charlotte. I like it, but I really like being near my grandparents in Mallard Creek. My grandfather lives in a house and teaches me a lot of hands-on things, like how to plug tires, how to work with circuits and how to stop and enjoy life! We love going on walks. Also, during the program he helped with my circuit greeting card project. 

Those are all the things that I like. Also, if you didn’t know, my dream is to recreate Jurassic Park! STEAM Lab is cool because I like creating new stuff all the time! For example, a zip line or playing with electric circuits or anything related to video games. 

I really enjoyed the Pixel Art. I'm into coding and Digi-Bridge made it easy to understand. I love trying to code and make video games. I actually like to create games in my free time!

Here’s what a regular morning in Virtual STEAM Lab looks like for me:

 

6:00- I brush my teeth and wash my face. If I have time, I play my game and just chill out. 

8:00-8:45- I will eat a breakfast that I can make, like a Cheese sandwich and a glass of milk. 

8:45- Set-up for my classroom in the kitchen. We sit separately from my sister. 

9:00- I greet my teachers Ms. Nicole and Mr. Moats. Then, we start off by sharing our emotions so the teacher knows how we are doing. 

9:15- Then Ms. Nicole tells us that we will get started. They sometimes show us a video and tell us what to do. 

10:00- Show the teacher what we did. We will code on SCRATCH if we finish early. 

11:00- Start cleaning up after finishing. We send a picture to Ms. Nicole and then we can eat part of the project if it’s edible! 

 

Thank you for reading as I shared my morning as a DIGI-Bridge Virtual STEAM student. Have a good day! 

 

Posted by Isaiah “I.T.” Twyman, 5th grade student at Druid Hills Academy

We’re launching a new guest series on the Google Fiber Blog featuring our awesome Google Fiber Business customers and how they make their internet service work for their businesses and their clients. We’re proud to open this series with a post from Kansas City’s Ben Seidel, CEO and Founder of Igniting Business, which has served hundreds of small businesses with web design, marketing, and SEO services since 2012.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 1/3 of businesses even make it to the 10-year mark. As a family-owned company, Igniting Business is defying those odds, reaching the 10-year mark in 2022 with the help of undoubtedly a mission critical resource– reliable and speedy internet.

Prioritizing a Mission Critical Resource

Since we started in 2012, Igniting Business’s goal has been to help small businesses succeed. As a web design and digital marketing company, literally everything we do heavily utilizes the internet! Whether it’s building new websites, launching digital marketing campaigns, providing technical support, or meeting virtually with clients, our business could not survive without reliable and blazing fast internet.

Before we upgraded to Google Fiber, we had two internet packages routing to our office from two different providers. Our reliability on internet was so intense that we could no longer afford to be without internet for minutes, let alone hours or even a day. With our advanced setup, if the primary internet failed for more than 60 seconds, it would kick over to our redundant, albeit slower, back-up internet. As you can imagine, this required a more robust IT setup and was expensive.

Eventually, we intentionally moved to an office where we knew Google Fiber could be installed, and Google Fiber Business’s speed and uptime has dramatically impacted our business. In fact, we no longer need backup internet! With Google Fiber, we have more reliable and faster internet and at a lower price point.

Enabling Growth

As Igniting Business faithfully served our customers, word spread regarding our quality of service and exclusive focus on small businesses. The beauty of our connected world is that we no longer need to be local to do business.

As a result, we started receiving work requests from all over the nation. However, our small business clients could not justify the additional cost of flying us out to their location to do business, nor did phone calls create the personal touch that small business owners need before entrusting us with the growth of their business.

Having high-speed internet for reliable video streaming, screen sharing, remote training, file sharing, and more enabled our business to proudly work with clients coast-to-coast in 24 states.

Making our Business Resilient

When the pandemic hit and forced nationwide closures, we were in the midst of renovating our new office space in a new building. Thankfully, even amidst a pandemic that brought other businesses to a grinding halt, our reliable internet at the new office allowed our team to still work remotely in a streamlined and connected way with slightly cuter bosses at home.

Some of our team members’ home office setups during the pandemic lockdown.

Our connected team was able to continue helping our clients succeed despite unimaginable challenges brought on by the pandemic. We helped them reach numerous odds-defying achievements: including (1) a single location restaurant opening a 2nd location in 2021, and now a third in 2022 and (2) a software client growing from 16 employees (pre-pandemic) to well over 100. Our clients that valiantly chose to see the newfound circumstances during the pandemic as an opportunity included numerous construction, engineering, and facility maintenance clients who are now hitting record numbers, as well as legal, finance, and healthcare clients who are helping their customers navigate likely one of the most tricky and stressful times of their lives.

How Technology Empowers Us to Innovate Into the Future

We understand, as a small business, our impact can be limited. However, with the connectivity and reach that our Google Fiber internet brings us, we continue to look for ways to serve more businesses, even if we cannot help them directly with our services. During the pandemic we spoke at webinars where we shared marketing insights with 70+ business owners simultaneously and looked for other ways to spark new growth ideas for small businesses.



In 2021, we launched our new website with a robust and free Resources section that includes content on various web design, SEO, and marketing tactics, a free monthly newsletter with tips and tricks, and even a list of the recommended tools and software we use at Igniting Business. Even though we can only serve a finite number of clients directly, we provide our free resources to thousands of small business owners and marketers each month!

As we sunset our first decade in business and look to the next, we continue to explore ways to help the small business community thrive, whether it’s locally in Kansas City or 2,000+ miles away, and we know that our Google Fiber internet will help us keep up with whatever that future holds.

Thank you to our clients across the nation for working with us and for trusting our team these past 10 years. Cheers to the next decade!

Posted by Ben Seidel, CEO and Founder, Igniting Business

Last month, we started offering service to customers in West Des Moines. The response has been great, and we’re looking forward to bringing fast, reliable internet to even more Iowans. In fact, later this year, we’re planning to start construction so we can bring Google Fiber to our neighbors to the east —  Des Moines!



We’re currently in the planning stages, working with the City of Des Moines on next steps to get started with the permitting process. Being next door in West Des Moines gives us a running start in Des Moines, as network construction takes time. Des Moines residents who want more information on what’s happening can sign up for emails here.

Google Fiber believes that everyone deserves quality internet, and we’re expanding our footprint in all our cities, including the newest!

And of course, we’re continuing to roll out service across West Des Moines. As the city completes new sections of the conduit network, we’ll pull our fiber through the conduit and open up sign-ups in new neighborhoods. To get the latest on availability in your area, sign up here.

Posted by Andy Simpson, General Manager, Central Region

At Google Fiber, we’re always striving to provide our customers with internet service so good that they never need to talk to our service team. But when customers do need us, we want to make it as easy and pleasant as possible. That’s why we’ve recently opened Google Fiber Kiosks in local malls where our customers can find us easily and take care of business quickly.



Now, new and existing customers in San Antonio (North Star Mall), Raleigh (Crabtree Mall), and Kansas City (Oak Park Mall) can sign up for or upgrade service, get help optimizing their home network or troubleshoot most issues with our dedicated service and sales teams — all while getting their other shopping done. The new kiosks are in heavily traveled areas and are designed to make it convenient and quick for customers to check out the latest from Google Fiber.



Posted by Beau Blochlinger, Head of Retail Operations