Google Fiber has announced that it will be launching new 5 Gig and 8 Gig plans for customers who demand even greater speeds and bandwidth. Available beginning in early 2023, both products will offer symmetrical upload and download speeds (up to 5 Gig or 8 Gig, respectively) with a Wi-Fi 6 router (customers can use their own), up to two mesh extenders, and professional installation, all priced for everyday use. The 5 Gig plan will cost $125/month, while the 8 Gig plan will cost $150/month.
From the Google Fiber blog:
At Google Fiber, we want to make sure our customers are ready for whatever the internet throws their way. While 2 Gig answered the call for many gamers and power streamers, 5 Gig and 8 Gig are designed for even heavier internet users — creative professionals, people working in the cloud or with large data, households with large shared internet demands. People who create and utilize large files need the ability to transfer them efficiently. For those who work on the cloud or in real time, like with financial transactions, it’s helpful to know there’s less lag between pushing send and making something happen. 5 Gig and 8 Gig can help these customers take on whatever they need online and be ready for whatever is coming next.
Google Fiber’s new 5 Gig and 8 Gig plans will answer this call. 5 Gig will make it easier to upload and download simultaneously, no matter the file size. And 8 Gig will make sure that everything you are doing online is happening in near real time (without jitter and with low latency).
While we can’t predict the future, we believe that video quality never seen before, virtual experiences that seem real to the touch, gaming as fast as you can play, (and who knows what else?) are right around the corner. This vision starts with our commitment to delivering great internet. With the help of content partners and device manufacturers, we’re excited to usher in the next generation internet experience for Google Fiber customers.
Select Google Fiber customers in Utah, Kansas City, or West Des Moines may be able to try out the new 5 Gig and 8 Gig tiers as early as next month. Dinni Jain, CEO of Google Fiber, revealed the results of a 20 Gig speed test in the field last month, hinting at the potential speeds of future plans.
Discussion (12 replies)
Join Discussion →Yea... I mean that SOUNDS great... until you have to update all of your infrastructure at home to 10gb networking. Exactly how many home routers support 10gigabit... anyone? Lets see what google says.
Even the 500 dollar routers that are BARELY for home use only have 2 10 gig ports...
So I guess that's great if you have VERY heavy wifi use and only 1 computer that needs the full 8 gig speed.
Reaching data caps at record speed!
I wasn't aware that Google did data caps. I know where I am frontier doesn't.
New super high speeds, available to no one. Google fiber is already a limited affair.
maybe they should work on getting their existing service out to more people......
That is far more expensive than just refreshing the existing hardware.
I think the sales pitch would be that you don't need 10GB networking -- GF would provide you with a WiFi router (I assume, for lease, but I don't know).
And the reason you don't need that - the high speed is for allowing more devices to be able to connect simultaneously. Presumably primarily over WiFi. And that the latest WiFi 6 standard supports speeds "up to" nearly 10 Gbps.
Now, we all now, "up to" is a very big loophole, wifi is never as good as wired, and all that jazz. But the main selling point will be "To connect ~all~ your devices".. not to get super speed to one computer.
Unless you have 50 devices pulling down 4k content you're not even getting close to 1 gigabit really. Especially with slicing and how caching works with the players these days.
Yup, I agree. That's the wonders of marketing.
Let's not even talk about how bandwidth sharing works as opposed to actual switching.
Coming soon to nowhere near you, unless you live in Austin or one of the other 3 cities that have Google fiber.
Honestly though... I upgraded from 200 to gig FIOS... I cannot tell the difference even on heavy usage days. The slowest component is always the other side of the internet anyway.
I have gig fiber as well and the only times it's really cool is when I'm downloading at 100 megabytes a second and the wife is streaming 4k tv.