This week in Barcelona at MWC, ZTE is showing off a new prototype “Gigabit Phone.” It’s a device capable of reaching download speeds of up to 1Gbps, the fastest we’ve seen to date on a mobile device.
The Washington Post has gotten its hands on an invitation that reveals that Google is experimenting with adding a phone service to Google Fiber. Currently, Fiber only has internet and cable, but the addition of a Google Voice-like phone service would bring it in line with packages from other providers.
Update: The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Google is planning to announce Google Fiber expansion to four new cities: Atlanta, Georgia; Charlotte, N.C.; Raleigh-Durham, N.C. and Nashville, Tenn.
Both Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham in North Carolina have long been listed as potential Google Fiber cities, and Ars Technica reports that these cities could be the next to offer the super high speed Internet and TV service with announcements expected next week and construction possibly beginning as soon as April.
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Google will add Provo, Utah, to the list of cities set to receive its ultra high speed Google Fiber Internet service.
Austin, Texas was revealed earlier this month to be joining Kansas City as host to Google Fiber.
The announcement by Provo Mayor John Curtis will be live streamed at 3:30 PM EST.
Following Google’s announcement that it will bring its speedy Google Fiber network to Austin, Texas, in mid-2014, AT&T has created competition by announcing it plans to bring fiber-optic internet connectivity to the Lone Star state as well.
Today, AT&T announced that in conjunction with its previously announced Project VIP expansion of broadband access, it is prepared to build an advanced fiber optic infrastructure in Austin, Texas, capable of delivering speeds up to 1 gigabit per second. AT&T’s expanded fiber plans in Austin anticipate it will be granted the same terms and conditions as Google on issues such as geographic scope of offerings, rights of way, permitting, state licenses and any investment incentives. This expanded investment is not expected to materially alter AT&T’s anticipated 2013 capital expenditures.
AT&T says it believes it will be granted the same privileges as Google in this regard. The full press release is available below:
We already knew that Google was getting set to announce its Gigabit Google Fiber Internet service for Austin, Texas today after an initial successful launch in Kansas last November. Reports claimed invites started going out this month, but today Google has officially announced Google Fiber will be coming to Austin, Texas by mid-2014.
Google noted that pricing would be similar to Kansas, and it will also be offering customers in Austin the same free Internet connection at 5 mbps for 7 years with a one time installation fee:
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