Google Fiber is coming to Salt Lake City. After months of speculation, city leaders and Google executives made it official Tuesday morning.
With the announcement Salt Lake City joins Provo as one of the few cities in the country that will receive Google Fiber. Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker says Google’s investment in the city will be transformative.
“This project has the potential to catalyze our already strong economy," he says. "It will help create jobs. It could convince established companies to dig up their roots and move to Salt Lake City. It could be a spring board for local innovation, education, and technology.”
The network will allow businesses and residents who sign up for the service to get high-speed internet at speeds up to 1 gigabit per second. That’s almost a hundred times faster than the average internet speeds in the United States. But the project is just in its infancy.
Devin Bear is Google’s associate manager for the Salt Lake City project. He says at this point there is no secure timeline for when the first residents will receive service.
“Now we have to design exactly where thousands of miles of fiber are going to go throughout the city," Bear says. "So, that process, we estimate, will take several months. And then once we’re done with the design we can actually begin construction and sign-ups.”
The building and maintenance of the new network will not cost Salt Lake City any money. But questions about several other details about the project, such as price for the consumer, remain unanswered.
