Google Fiber expanding to Salt Lake City

Google Fiber, Google's gigabit broadband network, continues to expand beyond its Kansas City origins.

Google Fiber will soon expand to Salt Lake City, Utah, Google confirmed March 24. Google said Salt Lake City is currently in the design phase of building out the fiber-based broadband network. Atlanta, Nashville, and Charlotte and Raleigh, NC, are also in the design phase for Google Fiber.

Google in February 2014 first revealed that it would select the next Google Fiber cities from nine major metropolitan areas across the U.S. At the time, Google said it would discuss with potential cities what steps they could take to make it easier for the company to build the gigabit network.

"We've been working closely with cities… to figure out how we could bring them Google Fiber, and we're grateful for their vision, commitment, and plain old hard work."

Among the topics discussed between Google and the potential locations' governments were local topography and whether the company would be able to use existing infrastructure (such as telephone poles) for a possible Fiber expansion.

Comcast said April 2 that it will launch 2 Gbps broadband service in Atlanta in May. No price for the service was announced. AT&T also offers gigabit service in select cities.

Google Fiber first launched in Kansas City in 2012. Beyond gigabit Internet speeds, Google Fiber also offers a number of pay TV channels including Comedy Central, ESPN, and Nickelodeon.

Google on Nov. 11 launched a program intended for small businesses in Kansas City called Early Access. The program lets small businesses in select parts of the city sign up for Google Fiber for the first time starting at $100 per month. The service was previously only available to residential customers.

The city of Cleveland is working with a local broadband provider to build a 100-gigabit broadband network, it was announced Nov. 21, 2014. The network is scheduled to be up and running by summer 2015.

Google said March 2 that it plans to launch "small scale" wireless service in the U.S. The company will lease wireless network capacity from the main U.S. wireless carriers and will not look to compete against these carriers. More details will be announced in the "coming months."