Construction for Google Fiber is still underway in Atlanta, and there is no specific launch date, according to Google Fiber.
Google Fiber’s website said the company is laying down thousands of miles of brand new “state-of-the-art” fiber optic cable throughout Atlanta. But company officials told Decaturish.com it would take two years to bring the fiber network to the metro area.
Krisna Patel, Marketing & Computer Information Systems major and Chief Marketing Officer of PantherHackers, said she thinks Google Fiber will impact Atlanta by providing faster Internet services and enabling program and code production.
“Being that Google Fiber isn’t offered everywhere, Atlanta is fortunate to be added to the limited list,” she said.
Google Fiber will be in Decatur, College Park and Hapeville. In metro Atlanta areas, the network will be available in Avondale Estates, Brookhaven, East Point, Sandy Springs and Smyrna, according to the company’s website.
However, Noel Small, director of Georgia State’s Network & Telecommunications Services for Information Systems and Technology, said the university doesn’t plan to utilize Google Fiber.
“Google Fiber’s projected impact on home and small business connectivity around Atlanta is very exciting,” she said. “However, because Google Fiber is aimed at providing residential service, rather than service to large enterprises like the university, it will likely not immediately impact how network connectivity is provided on the Georgia State University campus.”
Small also said the difference between the internet network at Georgia State and Google Fiber is that the university’s internet connection can be up to 10 times faster.
“Georgia State’s wired network offers 1 gigabit of wired access, which is the same as Google Fiber currently advertises,” she said. “In addition, as a research institution and a member of the Internet2 network, we have the ability to provide speeds of up to 10 times the speeds offered by Google Fiber for specialized research connections between institutions.”
Small said Google Fiber could be used off-campus for faster and easier connections to technology services.
Peisheng Wu, a computer science PhD student at Georgia State, said he would use Google Fiber to access the internet.
“If it were cheaper and without TV, I would choose that kind of service,” he said.
Upkar Varshney, associate professor of Computer Information Systems in Georgia State’s College of Business, said Google Fiber would increase gigabit speeds for cloud computing services, High Definition/Ultra High Definition video content and big data applications.
“The amount of data we deal with every day is growing very rapidly. The bottleneck in many areas really is the current available broadband Internet access, which has not increased in the same proportion as demand,” he said.
Upkar also said the average residential household has access at 10-30 Mbps, and the speed from Google Fiber can raise the access speed by a factor of 50.
“This could change the network applications that can be run by students, residents and businesses across Atlanta,” he said.
