Google Fiber is teasing a speed upgrade to 20Gbps, a 20x increase over its baseline service.
Google Fiber CEO Dinni Jain mentioned in a Tuesday blog post that the company is testing the 20Gbps speeds in Kansas City, where it’s been serving residents for the past decade.
"This month, we took our testing out of the lab and into the home, starting with our first trusted tester, Nick Saporito, the Head of Commercial Strategy for GFiber,” according to Jain, who posted a screenshot showing download speeds at Saporito’s home reaching 20.2Gbps.
Google Fiber can currently provide 1Gbps and 2Gbps internet speeds. However, Jain says the company is “already closer than you might think” to supplying even higher speeds.
“In the coming months, we’ll have announcements to dramatically expand our multi-gigabit tiers. These will be critical milestones on our journey to 100 Gig symmetrical internet,” he says.
One big question is how much 20Gbps will cost. Google Fiber is $70 per month for the 1Gbps plan and $100 for the 2Gbps tier—speeds that should be fast enough for most consumers.
For now, Jain says: “Just being fast (even the fastest) is not enough. It’s about all the aspects of providing multi-gig service to customers: pricing; value; simplicity and reliability of the product.”
The news arrives as Google Fiber is preparing to expand into five US states: Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada, and Idaho. It also plans on building up its presence in existing markets.
Google Fiber was once the ISP to beat, taking our Fastest ISPs awards in 2016 and 2017. However, the service has lagged in recent years after it went through a restructuring, which temporarily halted its expansion plans.
It now looks like Google Fiber wants to claw back some competitive edge. In his blog post, Jain notes that other internet service providers have begun working on 2, 5, 8, and even 10Gbps speeds. “Every major provider in the US seems to have now gotten the gigabit memo, and it’s only going up from there,” he says.