Google Fiber was blocked for years, but now says it will expand to 5 new states

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Google Fiber announces plans to expand its fiber-to-the-home internet service to several new states for the first time since announcing a construction pause in October 2016. Plans are in pending local approvals. The Alphabet Division said in a press release today that it is "speaking to municipal leaders" in five states "with the goal of bringing Google Fiber's fiber-to-the-home service to their communities." p>

The new states are Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada and Idaho. Three of them have just been announced, while projects in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Mesa, Arizona, have been announced in recent months.

"These states will be the primary focus of our growth over the next few years, as well as continued expansion into our current metropolitan areas," wrote Dinni Jain, CEO of Google Fiber. "Additionally, we'd also like to talk to communities who want to build their own fiber networks. We've seen this model work effectively in Huntsville and West Des Moines, and we'll continue to look for ways to support similar network efforts." /p>

Jain urged people to “stay tuned in the coming months as we fill this picture with more details about our new cities, even faster speeds and redefined customer service.” Other than his quote about "the next few years," Jain didn't offer a specific timeline for when residents can expect homes to be wired. However, he wrote that Google Fiber has been busy in other cities lately.

"We have steadily grown our network in all of our surrounding cities and regions, from North Carolina to Utah," Jain wrote in today's announcement. "We're connecting customers in West Des Moines, making Iowa our first new state in five years, and we'll soon begin construction in nearby Des Moines."

Google Fiber was launched in 2012 with big plans to change the consumer broadband industry in the United States. He had difficulty getting timely access to utility poles, and cities that gave faster access to Google Fiber poles were sued by AT&T, Charter, and Comcast. AT&T and Comcast won one of these lawsuits against Nashville.

Google Fiber has also encountered some issues of its own. Construction was limited and many residents complained that the network never reached their homes. In Kansas City, the site of Google Fiber's first rollout, some residents received cancellation emails years after ordering the service.

Google Fiber had positive effects on competition, as incumbent ISPs matched the newcomer's gigabit speeds and prices, but this effect was limited by the actual size of Google Fiber's network. For example, in 2015 AT&T matched the $70 gigabit price in Google Fiber cities, but charged $40 more per month in locations where there was no significant competition. Even that $70 price tag necessitated opting for a