Google Fiber announced plans to move into its second city in Iowa, revealing construction is set to begin in the capital city of Des Moines later this year.
The company said in a blog is it currently in the planning stages for the build, kicking off the permitting process ahead of actual its actual construction work. Its move marks an eastward expansion from an existing network project in West Des Moines, where it began offering its 1-gig and 2-gig services in March after settling a dispute with Mediacom over its work there in January.
Google Fiber is working to rapidly expand its footprint, looking to top its record build figures from 2021 this year. Already it has inked several deals to grow its presence in the area of Salt Lake City, Utah, and is hiring for dozens of key roles across its multi-state coverage area. It is also reportedly looking to follow Ting Internet into Colorado Springs by inking a deal to ride on a forthcoming fiber network being built by a local utility.
Though it will be squaring off with the likes of Lumen’s Centurylink and Mediacom in Des Moines, it seems Google will have plenty of room to grow in central Iowa.
A recently released study from the Greater Des Moines Partnership which tested the speeds available to homes in an 11-county region found 42.6% had access to download rates of less than 25 Mbps, which is the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) benchmark for basic broadband. Nearly a third (31.5%) of homes had uplink speeds below the FCC’s 3 Mbps standard. The study was based on more than 4,500 tests conducted by residents across Adair, Dallas, Guthrie, Jasper, Madison, Marion, Marshall, Polk, Poweshiek, Story and Warren counties.
Among study participants, nearly 74% said they are paying more than $61 dollars per month for their service and just over 17% are shelling out $100 or more. Google Fiber’s 1-gig and 2-gig service tiers cost $70 and $100 per month, respectively.