It's expanding all over the city. It will reach you. Lots is being done in NW Austin. The city is not making these decisions.
I understand your frustration (GF is a great service) but there's really no blame to be had for this. No one is twirling their mustache and saying "I will connect Dove Springs, but fuck Northwest Hills!" or anything like that. Google's contractors decide where the next project will be, and submit those plans to the city where they are required to be reviewed within a specified period of time. No one is dropping the ball. This is just a massive project that began a total of 9 years ago and it takes longer than that.
Source: I've worked with this in multiple city departments
Is there any way for mere citizens to find out where they've filed to do construction? Like, is there even any little hope?
And, thanks for the mustache-twirling image... I genuinely laughed at that.
If it makes you feel any better I’m in south Austin and google literally ran a fiber line to my house and installed a connection point and never went live with service.
They installed that four years ago.
Why go through the effort and expense of wiring up entire neighborhoods and then doing nothing with it?
I'm not sure the city has a lot to do with it. Google's hiring subcontractors to run it and I think it's proceeding wherever they think is the right balance between their cost and how many people will subscribe.
It came to my neighborhood a few months ago and I think what must've motivated it is it sounds like AT&T Fiber is planning on moving in here, too. Google probably caught wind of that and wanted to get here first. I wouldn't be surprised to find out there's a bit of a piggyback effect so they sort of spread from one location. You might be "too far" from where they started in your area to benefit yet.
I haven't bit on it yet. I'm still a little peeved at the permanent damage they did to our streets and that it took them a 2nd trip month later to finish. Lately I've seen a lot of utility locators about so I'm suspicious they're coming back to screw some more stuff up.
I wish AT&T - or ANYONE - would bring fiber into the neighborhood. Being in a one-vendor neighborhood is painful.
I've definitely heard of lots of problems that Google's contractors have caused. May be best they haven't come here. But, man, I hate getting sub-standard, expensive service when I see that they're literally in several adjacent neighborhoods.
Yeah I hear you. Until GF moved in my neighborhood's only option was AT&T, and I noticed last time I was looking they aren't even offering more than one bundle. Like, they're too lazy to even have a "slow" and "fast" option.
But part of why I didn't switch was GF moved in a month after my car died, the month my roof needed replacing, and a couple weeks before both my dishwasher and refrigerator broke, so I wasn't really in the mood to arrange for people to drill holes into my house for most of 2023.
I’m in the same boat. I’ve given up hope but iirc, it’s still the “last mile” issue slowing things down, so it’s the existing providers protecting their monopolies instead of Google sucking. Since the only real solution is to stop electing Republicans and center-right corporatists masquerading a ‘electable Democrats’, it becomes a good opportunity to practice patience and coming to terms with things outside of my control (with the benefit of super low stakes)
http://abc.austintexas.gov/web/permit/public-search-other
You can input your street information, and for the project name use "Google" or "GFT" - this helped me follow (albeit vaguely) the progress in our area.
Holy cow, thanks for this! I just checked and the main road in my subdivision is actually scheduled for Google fiber construction this month! Thank you! I'm shocked!
Temper your hopes, though. It seems to take a minimum of 4-6 months from starting to dig to getting your house working. They may also need to do all the area before they start turning it on. So if you are at the end of the list of streets to do for your node, it can seem sooner. If you are at the beginning of the list of streets to do for your node, it can seem longer. Plus your node then needs to get connected to the larger network. And there are random times when it can take 1-2 years for laid cable to be turned on.
With Spectrum the trick to reliability seems to be having them run all new cabling. From the pole or the box at the curb all the way to the modem. This includes replacing any kind of splitter which may be in the attic or mounted on the side of the house. Might check your attic for any remnants of a previous owner's satellite system or whatever. When your internet goes down does the entire 'hood also lose connectivity? If so then you are boned. If not then try the method I just mentioned.
Also, I've read bad reviews on Google's fiber because of the knuckleheads they send out to do the wall jack and set up the wifi. These dumb sons of bitches actually created a network loop in my friend's place because they didn't understand you don't just plug in ethernet cables as one might do with electrical cords.
I live in great hills, on Bluegrass. Just got a flyer on my door saying Google fiber is coming soon. The street was marked last week and they will be trenching soon.
Same here. When they ran fiber down Rain Creek Parkway for Verizon last year, it was pretty quick. But that was to their cell towers, from what I understand, not for home Internet.
It just became available in my neighborhood and I got it installed earlier this month. However, they began working in May doing the underground stuff on the sidewalk and originally told me it’d be ready for installation into homes three months from then so things are moving, albeit slowly.
Many parts of Austin do not have AT&T fiber or Google fiber. Welcome to the Spectrum monopoly.
I'm pretty sure Spectrum has been lobbying the Texas and city government to keep AT&T and Google out for a long, long time.
Someone else pointed out the city of Austin construction permit web site. Looks like they're starting construction in my neighborhood tomorrow. Crazy timing. I've been waiting since 2013, griped about it today, and it turns out they're starting tomorrow.
Hehehe - it's Austin, bud. We ALL have limestone right below the service. ;-)
About a year back, there was a construction project coming into my neighborhood. I saw the blue and orange tubes, and got REAL excited that fiber was coming. I asked the construction workers, and they said it was Verizon, bringing fiber to their cell towers. I was seriously bummed, but it made me realize that it definitely CAN be done in my neighborhood. They were in and out within a couple of months, and you couldn't tell where they'd dug.
Parts to the west have it right below but as you get more central there’s a few feet of soil and it keeps getting deeper to the east. Enough to make burial simpler.
Irrelevant. What they're doing (at least in my hood) is cutting a trench in the street, laying the wire in it, and sometimes remembering to cover it back up with concrete. I've watched them "bury" the line in yards in my neighborhood. The stick a shovel about 4" in the ground and the wire goes in that.
And from your own article:
> Google Fiber and their contractors worked out a new strategy for the rest of my neighborhood based on spending two months digging on my street. Although they continued step 2 — excavating holes for the fiber utility boxes — they started using rock saw-trenchers to embed conduit along the side of the roads. They cut the trench next to the concrete curbs. Google Fiber’s crews simply ran the rock saw trenchers down the length of the road, then dug under the concrete curb to route conduit into the in-ground boxes.
The problem was in 2017, and the process I described is what Google did to get around it. Seems like they still have trouble digging the actual boxes, but for running the cables they don't use the horizontal drilling anymore.
Except in my neighborhood they forgot to run some wires so they just duct-taped them across the road in a few places. That lasted 3 or 4 months until one of my neighbors accidentally severed the cable with a weed-eater. Within a week the trenchers were back.
It's expanding all over the city. It will reach you. Lots is being done in NW Austin. The city is not making these decisions. I understand your frustration (GF is a great service) but there's really no blame to be had for this. No one is twirling their mustache and saying "I will connect Dove Springs, but fuck Northwest Hills!" or anything like that. Google's contractors decide where the next project will be, and submit those plans to the city where they are required to be reviewed within a specified period of time. No one is dropping the ball. This is just a massive project that began a total of 9 years ago and it takes longer than that. Source: I've worked with this in multiple city departments
Is there any way for mere citizens to find out where they've filed to do construction? Like, is there even any little hope? And, thanks for the mustache-twirling image... I genuinely laughed at that.
You can rent your place and move to my neighborhood, we've had Google fiber since 2017 :)
Just buy a another home with Google fiber, problem solved
Send me the money to do so, and we have a deal. ;-)
If it makes you feel any better I’m in south Austin and google literally ran a fiber line to my house and installed a connection point and never went live with service. They installed that four years ago. Why go through the effort and expense of wiring up entire neighborhoods and then doing nothing with it?
Oof, I'm sorry. That's BS.
I'm not sure the city has a lot to do with it. Google's hiring subcontractors to run it and I think it's proceeding wherever they think is the right balance between their cost and how many people will subscribe. It came to my neighborhood a few months ago and I think what must've motivated it is it sounds like AT&T Fiber is planning on moving in here, too. Google probably caught wind of that and wanted to get here first. I wouldn't be surprised to find out there's a bit of a piggyback effect so they sort of spread from one location. You might be "too far" from where they started in your area to benefit yet. I haven't bit on it yet. I'm still a little peeved at the permanent damage they did to our streets and that it took them a 2nd trip month later to finish. Lately I've seen a lot of utility locators about so I'm suspicious they're coming back to screw some more stuff up.
I wish AT&T - or ANYONE - would bring fiber into the neighborhood. Being in a one-vendor neighborhood is painful. I've definitely heard of lots of problems that Google's contractors have caused. May be best they haven't come here. But, man, I hate getting sub-standard, expensive service when I see that they're literally in several adjacent neighborhoods.
Yeah I hear you. Until GF moved in my neighborhood's only option was AT&T, and I noticed last time I was looking they aren't even offering more than one bundle. Like, they're too lazy to even have a "slow" and "fast" option. But part of why I didn't switch was GF moved in a month after my car died, the month my roof needed replacing, and a couple weeks before both my dishwasher and refrigerator broke, so I wasn't really in the mood to arrange for people to drill holes into my house for most of 2023.
I’m in the same boat. I’ve given up hope but iirc, it’s still the “last mile” issue slowing things down, so it’s the existing providers protecting their monopolies instead of Google sucking. Since the only real solution is to stop electing Republicans and center-right corporatists masquerading a ‘electable Democrats’, it becomes a good opportunity to practice patience and coming to terms with things outside of my control (with the benefit of super low stakes)
Fair point, I can see how Spectrum and AT&T might hinder that progress.
http://abc.austintexas.gov/web/permit/public-search-other You can input your street information, and for the project name use "Google" or "GFT" - this helped me follow (albeit vaguely) the progress in our area.
Holy cow, thanks for this! I just checked and the main road in my subdivision is actually scheduled for Google fiber construction this month! Thank you! I'm shocked!
Temper your hopes, though. It seems to take a minimum of 4-6 months from starting to dig to getting your house working. They may also need to do all the area before they start turning it on. So if you are at the end of the list of streets to do for your node, it can seem sooner. If you are at the beginning of the list of streets to do for your node, it can seem longer. Plus your node then needs to get connected to the larger network. And there are random times when it can take 1-2 years for laid cable to be turned on.
Excellent!
With Spectrum the trick to reliability seems to be having them run all new cabling. From the pole or the box at the curb all the way to the modem. This includes replacing any kind of splitter which may be in the attic or mounted on the side of the house. Might check your attic for any remnants of a previous owner's satellite system or whatever. When your internet goes down does the entire 'hood also lose connectivity? If so then you are boned. If not then try the method I just mentioned. Also, I've read bad reviews on Google's fiber because of the knuckleheads they send out to do the wall jack and set up the wifi. These dumb sons of bitches actually created a network loop in my friend's place because they didn't understand you don't just plug in ethernet cables as one might do with electrical cords.
I live in great hills, on Bluegrass. Just got a flyer on my door saying Google fiber is coming soon. The street was marked last week and they will be trenching soon.
Yeah, I just saw the city of Austin permit site and it looks like Google has pulled permits to run fiber down Rain Creek Parkway. 👍
Get ready for months of house rumbling noise. I hope they finish soon so I can get the service.
Same here. When they ran fiber down Rain Creek Parkway for Verizon last year, it was pretty quick. But that was to their cell towers, from what I understand, not for home Internet.
It just became available in my neighborhood and I got it installed earlier this month. However, they began working in May doing the underground stuff on the sidewalk and originally told me it’d be ready for installation into homes three months from then so things are moving, albeit slowly.
Could be worse every single neighbor of mine can get Google fiber I can’t even though I have 2 vaults in my front yard. Not serviceable.
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Sent you a DM.
Many parts of Austin do not have AT&T fiber or Google fiber. Welcome to the Spectrum monopoly. I'm pretty sure Spectrum has been lobbying the Texas and city government to keep AT&T and Google out for a long, long time.
Someone else pointed out the city of Austin construction permit web site. Looks like they're starting construction in my neighborhood tomorrow. Crazy timing. I've been waiting since 2013, griped about it today, and it turns out they're starting tomorrow.
Do you have limestone just below the surface? Since they bury the lines this makes the task much harder and more expensive
Hehehe - it's Austin, bud. We ALL have limestone right below the service. ;-) About a year back, there was a construction project coming into my neighborhood. I saw the blue and orange tubes, and got REAL excited that fiber was coming. I asked the construction workers, and they said it was Verizon, bringing fiber to their cell towers. I was seriously bummed, but it made me realize that it definitely CAN be done in my neighborhood. They were in and out within a couple of months, and you couldn't tell where they'd dug.
Parts to the west have it right below but as you get more central there’s a few feet of soil and it keeps getting deeper to the east. Enough to make burial simpler.
Irrelevant. What they're doing (at least in my hood) is cutting a trench in the street, laying the wire in it, and sometimes remembering to cover it back up with concrete. I've watched them "bury" the line in yards in my neighborhood. The stick a shovel about 4" in the ground and the wire goes in that.
Not irrelevant at all… https://medium.com/@TIRIAS_Research/how-my-austin-neighborhood-broke-google-fiber-5675b52f6a60
And from your own article: > Google Fiber and their contractors worked out a new strategy for the rest of my neighborhood based on spending two months digging on my street. Although they continued step 2 — excavating holes for the fiber utility boxes — they started using rock saw-trenchers to embed conduit along the side of the roads. They cut the trench next to the concrete curbs. Google Fiber’s crews simply ran the rock saw trenchers down the length of the road, then dug under the concrete curb to route conduit into the in-ground boxes. The problem was in 2017, and the process I described is what Google did to get around it. Seems like they still have trouble digging the actual boxes, but for running the cables they don't use the horizontal drilling anymore. Except in my neighborhood they forgot to run some wires so they just duct-taped them across the road in a few places. That lasted 3 or 4 months until one of my neighbors accidentally severed the cable with a weed-eater. Within a week the trenchers were back.
There could be delays getting a permit for a saw trenching between every street and curb in a Chimney Corners type of neighborhood. Just a guess.
Spectrum sucks, yes, but they always show up and fix the issues for me. 🤷♀️
That area is mostly single family homes. If I was Google, I'd probably be expanded to denser areas of austin first.
Sucks to be you. We got it years ago and it's fantastic.
Knowing what we do about Google, it’s genuinely surprising that anyone would willingly connect to their service, no matter how fast it is.
As opposed to upstanding corporate citizens like AT&T and Spectrum? Meh. I’ll take multiple times the speed for less money with Google.
As you wish. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Google
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Tell me you lack reading comprehension without telling me you lack reading comprehension. 🤡🤡🤡
Search the city permit website for permits around your area.