It wasn’t that long ago that gigabit plans were considered the best of the best. In fact, many areas still dream of gigabit making its way to them. However, as the internet grows, gaming demand inflates, and the “metaverse” slowly becomes a thing–so does the need for even more bandwidth. Something Google plans to be in the lead with as Google Fiber readies a few new plans coming next year.
Google plans on adding two new plans to its fiber services, including 5Gbps and 8Gbps. These new plans will run customers $125 or $150 a month and will obviously be limited to certain areas as the company grows these features out everywhere eventually. A few locations will even have the ability to sign up early sometimes next month.
The price is a little high compared to general cable plans out there, but it will mostly be targeted to businesses at first. Companies who need increased amount of bandwidth to move large amounts of data every day. Even so, there will likely be a large number of consumers looking to get their hands on these plans regardless. Mostly because the speeds go both ways. Something that most cable and satellite providers typically just can’t compete against (yet).
In fact, these other companies don’t come anywhere close to it. For example, Cox Communications offers a gigabit plan, but the upload/upstream is restricted to 35Mbps (aka “pathetic) [Update 2023: Cox has risen its upload to 100Mbps]. Compared to 1Gbps downstream, that is pretty miniscule. So to have multi-gigabit in both directions would be a huge advantage for both enthusiasts and gamers.
Thankfully, Google already has up to 2Gbps options for customers, which is already a massive step forward for most everyone in the country. Pushing faster than that is simply the company’s attempt to be to internet that SpaceX is to space travel or Tesla is to electric vehicles. It’s all about pushing those boundaries to challenge and stimulate technological evolution (and the competition). This is also why the company continues to push for affordable pricing on top of everything else.
The new plans will roll out early 2023. However, as mentioned, certain areas will be able to sign up for the new tiers ahead of time next month (November). These tiers will also come with an optional (Google) mesh router system (or you can use your own preferred router).
I know that we, ourselves, will be highly tempted to jump on board at many of our homes. As soon as Google makes their way here (Nevada), at least. It is in the plans, but no specific time windows have been released by the company just yet outside of mentioning “in the coming years”. The company also plans to expand into Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, and Idaho as well.
