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What is Google Fiber and Webpass?
Find out what Google Fiber and Webpass internet services cost, the speed, and where it's available in this complete guide
Google Fiber and Webpass are high-speed broadband internet services, one offers a wired connection via fiber optic cable, while the other uses millimeter-wave wireless transmission over antennas. Each type of Google Fiber or GFiber service provides fast and dependable internet connections along with gigabit speed. We explain each broadband service and dig into why Google provides internet instead of focusing solely on its search engine.
Google offers its remaining Fiber TV subscribers free Chromecasts to cancel their plans
The promotion also includes a free Google Wifi router
Back in 2020, Google announced it was retiring its Fiber TV service as it refocused efforts to expand internet availability. It made sense — after all, YouTube TV fulfills the same need for consumers with added convenience. Now, Google is making it even easier to move away from its old Fiber TV service by offering users the chance to upgrade to a Chromecast with Google TV and a new router.
Google Fiber's got a brand-new icon ... that you'll probably never recognize again
Abstract shapes and rainbow colors? That's a Google service, all right
Above: The most recent text-only Fiber logo. Below: Prior imagery associated with Fiber.
Google Fiber's 2 gigabit service now available for some of the luckiest bastards in the country
Music City, Rocket City, but not your city
Read update
Launched over a decade ago, Google Fiber’s reach is still limited to 19 cities across the United States. Though that coverage isn’t as impressive as the 1Gbps up and down speeds it promised back in the day, the company is at least making strides in the bandwidth department. It's now making the jump to 2Gbps speeds on a household line, matching what Comcast has been doing since way back in 2015. That extra throughput comes at a price, though, and not everyone is eligible for it just yet.
Google Fiber now allows you to use your own router
And by 'you,' we mean 'probably not you' because it's still not in your city
The kind of person to subscribe to Google's ultra-fast Fiber Internet probably knows a little more about good Wi-Fi than most, so it's nice that Google Fiber is now letting its savviest subscribers make the most of their gigabit (and upcoming 2Gbps) speeds without the Network Box.
Next stop for Google Fiber expansion is Millcreek, Utah
As Salt Lake City construction nears completion, Google is planning further growth in the state
Google had gone rather quiet about the expansion of its Fiber network until last week's announcement that it would come to West Des Moines in Iowa. Like buses, a second has arrived soon after — Google has shared plans to extend its high-speed internet service in Utah to the city of Millcreek.
Google Fiber comes to a new city after long expansion hiatus
Get ready for $70 gigabit, West Des Moines, Iowa
After a long hiatus, it looks like Google Fiber is finally ready to start expanding to new markets again. In a blog post yesterday, Google announced that the West Des Moines, Iowa city council has approved an "open conduit network," and that Google fiber will be the first tenant for city-wide internet access via the new plan. Over 66,000 new customers will have access to Google Fiber's fast and cheap internet access — and incumbents will finally have a reason to compete.
Google Fiber is the tech giant's answer to overpriced, sluggish internet access, provided you live in one of the few areas where it's available. While Fiber has expanded to 9 states, Louisville, Kentucky has the unpleasant honor of being the first market to lose access to Google Fiber.
Google Fiber has been hitting a few rough patches lately; it turns out it's pretty expensive and difficult to lay down fiber internet. But Google thinks it can turn things around by shifting the service's rollout process. Today the company announced that Fiber will arrive in Louisville and San Antonio, but without the traditional TV add-on.
Google sells fiber Internet access and television service through the Google Fiber brand. Yeah, you might have forgotten that, since the rollout process is about as fast as continental drift, and even if you live in the US odds are overwhelming that you don't have access to it. Google also makes set-top box software called Android TV... which you might also have forgotten, since it's still pretty limited in terms of actual users. Fiber started in 2012, with Android TV starting in 2014, so they've never been running the same software, but they're getting a little closer now.
Many of us have spent the last five years hoping beyond hope that Google Fiber would be deployed on our home turf. Fiber has been expanding little by little, but the costs are still astronomical. Alphabet CEO Larry Page has reportedly gotten fed up with Google Fiber burning through cash. He's demanded Fiber chief Craig Barratt cut his staff to 500 from 1,000 and reduce the cost of acquiring new customers to one-tenth of current levels.
Google Fiber is slowly, s-l-o-w-l-y making its way into more US markets, and its latest move is intended to make that rollout faster. The Google subsidiary has agreed to purchase Webpass, a high-speed Internet service provider that services residential buildings and businesses in parts of Boston, Chicago, Miami, San Diego, and San Francisco. If you happen to live in one of these cities, you can check your building's access on the main Webpass site.
Google Fiber is high-speed internet the likes of which most of us can only dream of. For a handful of states, Google's effort to get people online faster is already a reality. Roughly six metros are set to get the experience at some point in the future. Another dozen are being considered, and today Google has announced Dallas as the latest city to make that list.
You know how you still don't have Google Fiber in your area, even after offering to relinquish your immortal soul to Google? Well, there's about to be yet another reason to be sad about that. Google is preparing to add Cast support to all existing Google Fiber TV boxes. However, there are some weird restrictions.
Account management apps aren't the most exciting pieces of software. Reading about one is liable to be even less interesting when you can't even get the service in your area. I understand. Having to write about Google Fiber when I can't get it doesn't feel much better.
It's not often here at Android Police that we talk about good old-fashioned phones. No, not pocket computers. Not portable game consoles. Not point-and-shoot cameras. Just plain old, hold-up-to-your-ear, talk-using-your-mouth, keep-in-place-with-your-shoulder-instead-of-your-hands phones. But Google Fiber is giving us a reason.
Dear residents of Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville, and Raleigh-Durham—I now hate you. I am not alone in my unremitting dislike of you. Indeed, most of the web now despises you and your upcoming access to the holy grail of internet access, Google Fiber. Yes, Google is rolling fiber out to these four metro areas in the coming months. Congratulations, jerks.
You lucky jerks in those limited areas with Google Fiber access have all the fun. Not only do you have relatively inexpensive and lightning-fast home Internet, you get TV service with support from Google. The latest update to the Google Fiber IPTV app for Android adds even more goodies, most notably the ability to pause and play television with the standard lockscreen controls or with an integrated Android Wear app. Make sure and show it off to your peasant friends who live in Cabletown.
Google Fiber coming to your city, with its promise of gigabit Internet speeds up to 100 times faster than what most of us currently put up with, is about as awesome as winning the lottery often enough to buy Time Warner Cable yourself and using all of the company's resources to funnel a connection to your house and yours only. Thus far the service has only appeared in a few parts of the country, namely Kansas City, Austin, and Provo. Today Google has announced that Fiber may be heading to 34 additional cities spread across nine metropolitan areas.
If you haven't heard, Google makes a ton of Android apps. It can be a real hassle to keep up with them all, as the company is occasionally prone to updating a handful of them at once. So today we're lumping together new versions of My Tracks, Google Fiber, Google TV Search, Google Shopping Express, and Voice Search for Google TV all in one post. Links and changelogs for all five apps are available below.