Call it the rapture of the nerds: Google Fiber is going to San Francisco.
Ultra-fast Internet access soon will reach “some apartments, condos and affordable housing properties” in the West Coast city, Michael Slinger, Google Fiber’s director of business operations, wrote in a blog post Wednesday.
Even though San Francisco is a thriving center of technology and anchor for Silicon Valley, its homes and businesses don’t enjoy Web access that’s any better than the rest of the U.S. The city of more than 800,000 even lags behind some smaller urban areas that already boast fiber-optic Gigabit connections, which can be ten times faster than what most providers offer.
Google, part of Alphabet, is going to change that, although it’s taking a slightly different approach from the places where Google Fiber is already up and running.
Instead of building out a network, Google will tap into existing fiber in San Francisco. While this speeds up deployment, the drawback is it won’t be available everywhere.
Google Fiber will also connect some of San Francisco’s public and affordable housing properties for free, an effort it’s making in other U.S. cities as a way to provide Internet access to poorer neighborhoods.
Colorado residents are still waiting for Google Fiber.
