Google Fiber Coming to Decatur, Avondale Estates

By Kristal Dixon

Photo credit: Google Fiber’s Facebook page

For those looking for another Internet service provider, Google will soon be among the choices available to Decatur and Avondale Estates residents.

Google on Tuesday made the announcement that it will roll out its Fiber service to the metro Atlanta area, according to its Official Google Blog.

Along with Atlanta proper, the cities in the metro area selected for Fiber include Sandy Springs, Smyrna, Brookhaven, Decatur, Avondale Estates, East Point, College Park and Hapeville.

Other metro hubs slated to get Google Fiber include Raleigh-Durham, NC; Charlotte, NC; and Nashville, TN.

“We can’t wait to see what people and businesses across the southeast U.S. do with gigabit speeds,” Google stated.

Google has said its Fiber service operates at 100 times the speed typically provided by other cable companies, and at a competitive price.

The company first announced it was considering Atlanta for Fiber in October, then in December the Decatur Minute blog said Google leaders were delaying decisions until early 2015.

“The City of Decatur is thrilled to be one of the metro Atlanta cities that will get connected to Google Fiber,” said Mayor Jim Baskett on the city’s website Tuesday. “We are a community of homes, schools and places of worship. And we know that Google Fiber’s incredibly fast internet will benefit our community greatly. The entire city looks forward to partnering with Google to make the process of installing Google Fiber as easy and seamless as possible.”

The next stage of work includes designing and planning a new fiber-optic network down to a very detailed level. After this process, which will take several months, Google Fiber will begin constructing the network.

For more information about this announcement, visit the Google Fiber blog. You can also sign up here for Decatur updates.

Google notes bringing the technology to select cities is a “long-term investment.”

“We’ve been working closely with city leaders over the past year on a joint planning process to get their communities ready for Google Fiber — and now the really hard work begins,” Google said in its press release on its blog. “Our next step is to work with cities to create a detailed map of where we can put our thousands of miles of fiber, using existing infrastructure such as utility poles and underground conduit, and making sure to avoid things like gas and water lines. Then a team of surveyors and engineers will hit the streets to fill in missing details. Once we’re done designing the network (which we expect to wrap up in a few months), we’ll start construction.”

Tell us, Decatur: will you make the switch to Google Fiber?