Google Fiber turns on internet service in first Valley city
Google Fiber is live in Mesa.
And it’s the first Arizona city to get access to the gigabit internet service.
The company announced that a first wave of Mesa residents can sign up for the internet service beginning March 30, with the service starting in the Westwood area. For the latest information on the build-out process and the neighborhoods available, click here.
According to an announcement, most of the city of Mesa will have access to Google Fiber over the next three years.
Construction on Google Fiber’s fiber optic network in Mesa began a few months ago. The fiber optic connection is made of glass strands and uses lasers to transmit information at rates close to the speed of light, according to the company. Google Fiber says this helps ensure a reliable connection with faster upload and download speed across multiple devices.
Google Fiber began exploring bringing high-speed internet to Arizona back in 2015, but it wasn’t until last year that Mesa approved the company constructing its infrastructure in the city. Construction to bring the service to Chandler will begin later this year, according to Google Fiber, and the company is in talks with other cities in Maricopa County.
Mesa customers can choose from Google Fiber’s flagship one gig service, at $70 a month, which offers up to 1,000 mbps uploads and downloads, two gig service, at $100 a month, with up to 2,000 mbps uploads and downloads, along with new faster offerings — five gig at $125 a month, with up to 5,000 mbps uploads and downloads and eight gig at $150 a month, with up to 8000 mbps uploads and downloads.
Last summer, Mesa approved license agreements for Google Fiber as well as fiber-optic companies SiFi, Ubiquity and Wyyerd to install their networks in the city’s rights of way.
Mesa Mayor John Giles told the Business Journal in an interview last summer that the process to bridge the digital divide in the city has been years in the making. In January 2022, the city sought solicitations for fiber-optic companies that would be interested in installing their networks in the city.
Giles said he wants to “future-proof” Mesa as technology gets incrementally better and infrastructure lags behind. Going to fiber, which will be how the world connects to the internet for the next few decades, would be “the gold standard,” he said.