BigShinyRobot! is based out of Salt Lake City, so we were especially excited when it was announced this morning that Google is looking to expand to 9 cities and Salt Lake is one of them. The other cities are: Portland, Oregon; San Jose, California; Phoenix, Arizona; San Antonio, Texas; Nashville, Tennessee; Atlanta, Georgia; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. Last year it was announced that Google was buying an already existing network from Provo (for $1), a city just south of Salt Lake, and turning it into Google Fiber. They began signing up customers earlier this year. Moving a bit north to Salt Lake makes a lot of sense for Google. As Michael Slinger, Director of Business Operations for Google Fiber said:
“We’re excited to be working with Mayor Becker and leaders in Salt Lake City to explore the possibility of bringing Google Fiber to area residents. It’s a natural extension north from our network in Provo, but more than that, we know how tech-savvy everyone in the Silicon Slopes is, and we’d love to see what these local entrepreneurs could do with a gigabit network like Google Fiber.”
It’s a natural extension north from our network in Provo…
Mayor Becker announces Google Fiber expansion in Salt Lake City. Photo by Bryan “Swankmotron” Young
Google will be conducting a study in each of the 9 cities to ensure that they are right for a Google Fiber network, you can read about what will be done here. However, not everyone is happy about the expansion. Pete Ashdown, owner of Xmission a local ISP, write a blog about his reasons here.