Google Fiber to ramp up construction in San Antonio

There's no timeline yet on when Google Fiber will start making connections to homes and businesses in San Antonio, but officials say that construction crews will be far more visible, trenching and working on utility poles. less There's no timeline yet on when Google Fiber will start making connections to homes and businesses in San Antonio, but officials say that construction crews will be far more visible, trenching and working on ... more Photo: Google Fiber Photo: Google Fiber Image 1 of / 24 Caption Close Google Fiber to ramp up construction in San Antonio 1 / 24 Back to Gallery

Construction of the highly anticipated Google Fiber network is ramping up, but the tech giant still isn’t ready to say when signups for the service will begin.

But a big construction push is getting underway to build the network, a Google spokeswoman said.

San Antonio is one of a handful of cities across the U.S. getting the high-speed fiber-optic network that promises gigabit speeds, about 100 times faster than basic broadband service.

“We’ve started to ramp up our Google construction efforts in San Antonio. You’ll see us around town digging and stringing fiber cables so that we can deliver Google Fiber’s super-fast internet to the city,” said Clarissa Ramon, Google Fiber’s Community Impact manager. “As we lay thousands of miles of fiber-optic cable throughout San Antonio, we’ll keep residents updated along the way.”

Though the company did not provide an estimate of how long construction would take, Ramon said that “over the coming months, we’ll bring fiber into customers’ homes or businesses.”

The process is a massive one. By the time construction is completed, the new fiber-optic lines here could stretch to Canada and back, Ramon said.

The Mountain View, California-based tech company’s engineers have just about completed the design phase, having mapped out the specifics of the network, being built from scratch. The construction will take hundreds of crews and thousands of hours as they work on a hub-and-spoke design.

Residents may begin to see crews working in their neighborhoods, trenching underground, tearing up streets and hanging lines on thousands of utility poles in the area.

“We still have a lot of work to do,” Ramon said. “This brings us one step closer to opening signups for Google Fiber in San Antonio.”

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