Google Fiber returns to life with 5Gbps service, 8Gbps coming soon

Google Fiber announced last year that it was sort of coming back to life. For years, the service that forced Google to come to town, lay miles of fiber optic cable, and compete with the local ISP monopolist put a stop to further expansion. Now, for some reason, Fiber is back and the company is offering a new maximum of 5 gigabits per second.

Of course, the disadvantage of Google Fiber is always a very limited deployment area. Google says 5 Gig service is coming to “Kansas City, West Des Moines, and all of our Utah cities, “and that’s about it. Last year, Google Fiber announced plans to roll out in five new states, but does not plan to ever reach a wide rollout.

However, if you live in one of Fiber’s blessed cities, the service sounds great. It’s symmetrically 5 Gb/s, so download and upload speeds are 5 Gb/s, which is a massive improvement over something like Comcast with ~35 MB download speeds. If you are a content creator, developer, or especially someone who regularly generates 4K videos, normal ISP download speeds can be devastating. Google’s 5Gbps service costs $125 a month and includes a professionally installed 10Gbps fiber modem, “a Wi-Fi 6 router, and two mesh extenders.”

Typically, Google Fiber equipment is its own Google Nest WiFi package. The company notes that you can bring your own equipment instead, and you probably should, as all Nest WiFi models only have a 1 Gigabit Ethernet port for modem connection, which would be a major bottleneck in a 5 Gigabit Internet setup. Properly feeding 5 Gbps into a Wi-Fi setup – and even a wired setup – means you’ll have to be very picky about your gear.

The 10 gigabit modem is a sign of Google’s plans to further promote Google Fiber. The company says “8 Gig is just around the corner”- a reference to a previously announced plan to launch a $150 service tier in “early 2023”. The company has publicly tested 20 Gb/s and said it is now on a “journey to 100 Gb symmetrical Internet”.