It’s Heeeereee— Google Fiber

One of the things I looked for in a city to move to was a tech area that would be connected and have opportunities to expand all the tech stuff I do in my photo business.

I totally took it as a good omen, when just a bit after our move was complete Google announced Durham as a possible finalist to get their amazing high speed (1000Mbps up AND down at the same time) Google Fiber service.

Well, look what’s happening in our South Durham neighborhood.

The top photo, the Google folks came by to address issues with construction in the neighborhood, to answer all of my geeky questions about getting fiber installed, and to give us LocoPops! (yes, you can tell this is a local team, not from out of town 🙂

The bottom photo is all of the notations of the other utilities for Google’s crews to avoid, and their installation notes.

A few quick interesting points: They will be installing amazing new modems that will have not only Wifi built in, but also Google Chromecast for ‘net streaming your Netflix YouTube, etc. to the TV. This is outside of the actual TV channel upgrade you can get. 

The modem should play nice with your existing wifi routers if they are fairly new (like we use one to boost the sign throughout our house)… but you may not need your old wifi box, as this new router they are releasing has a ton (11?) antennas and gives an average house great coverage.

Price:

Price-wise, they say to expect it to be in line with what we see in other cities have ($70/mo full service, or a discounted, slower service for $40/mo is what I’ve seen). 

TV Features:

The TV upgrade will have a unified search feature, so if you search it for a show you love, it’ll search all of the channels you subscribe to, your Chromecast services like Netflix and YouTube, etc… to give you all the options. No more searching for a show on Netflix, not finding it, then searching on Amazon Prime Video, and doing that over and over.

We’re pretty pumped to get service.

So When Do They Throw the Switch?

The totally, totally unofficial word is that some areas of the Triangle that are now seeing construction crews could be connected this calendar year. 

Bring it on. I can’t wait to see what cool, nifty stuff we do with this speed. 

Even the Google techs I talked to said it’s transformative to have everything you do just pop up, ready to go… like when we all switched from dial-up to cable.

photos by: HuthPhoto of the tech capital of the south, Durham NC

taken in South Durham, NC

Learn more about Google Fiber in the Triangle