Google Fiber Expands to Huntsville, Alabama

Boxes of equipment needed to install Google Fiber broadband network sit on a couch at the home of customer Becki Sherwood in Kansas City, Kansas, U.S., on Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2012. Google Inc. will move a step closer to offering the fastest citywide Internet service in the U.S. when it picks the first neighborhoods in Kansas City to get hooked into a new fiber-optic network. (PHOTO CREDIT: Julie Denesha/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Google Fiber is bringing its speedy Internet to Huntsville, AL, for the first time forming a partnership with a city’s utility grid.

Google says a fiber network “is a long-term investment that can benefit a city for decades.”

“In 2014, Huntsville’s leaders shared their vision for a community energized by superfast speeds — and they decided to build a network that could support an electrical smart grid and other municipal needs, plus provide the best of the Web for local families, entrepreneurs, businesses and academics alike,” Jill Szuchmacher, director of Google Fiber Expansion said in a statement. “To date, we’ve built the majority of our Google Fiber networks from scratch. But over the past five years, we’ve repeatedly seen that every city is unique.”

In Provo, Utah, speedy Internet is being delivered over a network Google Fiber bought from the city. In Atlanta, Google Fiber is building its own network and using existing fiber to reach some apartment buildings. Google also operates in Austin, Texas and Kansas City and has announced plans to expand to five other cities.

Google Fiber will work with Huntsville Utilities, which is extending its fiber-optic cable network.

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SOURCE: USA Today, Jessica Guynn