Google Fiber Starts Utah Rollout

Although it was the third region to get announced as a Google Gigabit site, Provo, Utah, is now rocketing ahead of Austin, Texas, as the second place for Google Fiber to roll out its 1 Gbit/s service. (See Austin Gets Google's Next Fiber Gig.)

Google has announced that residential customers of Veracity Networks in Provo can sign up for service throughout October. The rest of Provo's residents will be eligible for Google Fiber starting in January. Austin is due to start getting service in mid-2014.

The high-speed Internet rollout is happening quickly in Provo because Google purchased the iProvo network from the municipality there and doesn't have to start from scratch laying fiber to subscriber homes. Existing Veracity customers are already hooked into the network, which is why they get first crack at the new service.

The fact that fiber infrastructure is already in place also means the connection fee for subscribers drops to $30 from the $300 rate that Google Fiber offers in Kansas City. Aside from that initial cost, the Google Fiber service packages in Provo mirror the Kansas City offerings. The company is offering free Internet service with speeds up to 5 Mbit/s downstream and 1 Mbit/s upstream, symmetrical gigabit service for $70 per month, and gigabit Internet plus TV service for $120 per month.

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