The Decatur Minute

It’s official, Google Fiber is coming to metro Atlanta. Google will be working closely with Decatur and other local city leaders on the next steps to build a brand new fiber-optic network capable of delivering gigabit speeds.

“We are here because of the hard work, passion and commitment of the city and its leaders,” said Kevin Lo, Director of Business Operations for Google Fiber. “The next chapter of the Internet will be written at gigabit speeds.”

Google Fiber is an Internet and TV service that provides Internet speeds up to one gigabit per second, along with hundreds of HD TV channels. Google Fiber is currently available in Kansas City, Provo, Utah and Austin, Texas.

“The City of Decatur is thrilled to be one of the metro Atlanta cities that will get connected to Google Fiber,” said Mayor Jim Baskett. “We are a community of homes, schools and places of worship. And we know that Google Fiber’s incredibly fast internet will benefit our community greatly. The entire city looks forward to partnering with Google to make the process of installing Google Fiber as easy and seamless as possible.”

The next stage of work includes designing and planning a new fiber-optic network down to a very detailed level. After this process, which will take several months, Google Fiber will begin constructing the network.

For more information about this announcement, visit the Google Fiber blog.  You can also sign up here and be the first to get updates.

FAQs from Google

Now that you’ve announced Google Fiber is coming, what happens next?

In order to make the construction of Google Fiber as smooth and speedy as possible, Google will be working with city leaders over the next several months to complete a detailed design of a fiber network — an important step before starting construction, since building a network from scratch is a “measure-twice-cut-once” type of project.

Do you have a date when Google Fiber will start service?

It will take some time before Google Fiber starts signups. In the next several months they will be working with city leaders to design the network. Once there is a detailed plan in place, they can begin initial construction.

You mentioned that the next step is “designing your network”. What does that entail, exactly?

Google Fiber needs to build thousands of miles of fiber throughout the city – but they can’t just put it wherever they want. They take all of the information submitted during the planning process to create a comprehensive plan for building their fiber network. The design helps enable Google Fiber to do construction more efficiently and smoothly once they get going. Some concrete steps they will take during this next phase:

• Use the infrastructure data that the city has shared to create a map of where they can put fiber (e.g., existing utility poles, conduit) and areas to avoid (e.g., water, sewer and electric lines), as well as the most efficient sequence of construction within the city.
• A team of surveyors and engineers hits the streets to fill in any missing details. You may see crews out doing detailed surveying work — lots of staring up at poles and even a bit of geological rock-testing.
• They take this information back to the office and create detailed network design maps, do work with the city to locate network infrastructure and fiber huts, and start to prepare permitting packages.
• Then they design the network, street by street.