Google Fiber broadband reached San Antonio

Prices for Google Fiber are comparable or below what most households already pay.

San Antonio, announced on Wednesday, is the 24 U.S. city – scattered through seven states – to get Google Fiber Internet service. This second half of the year, the company is bringing to San Antonio, Texas its fast Internet service after expanding in Salt Lake City, Nashville, Raleigh-Durham, Atlanta, and Charlotte.

Announcing the move, Google said it will soon enter the design phase of building out the fibre network in the city, which it claims has 1.4 million residents and “one of the biggest and fastest growing cities in the country”. This will involve the laying down of 4,000 miles of fibre optic cable, which is enough to stretch to Canada and back.

Google Fiber has been rolling out slowly, and is only available in the Kansas City area, Provo, Utah, and Austin, Texas, right now.

No Internet infrastructure has been built in the city yet. Google also offers slower, free Internet for a one-time installation fee, which costs about $300.

Strama said gigabit speeds will allow people to use more applications at faster speeds and at higher capacity.

Google has rolled out fiber in phases in other cities, starting with neighborhoods where there’s the most demand, so it’s not clear when or if all of San Antonio will be wired up.

President Obama recently selected San Antonio for his Tech Hire and Connect Home initiative, which aims to help create a pipeline of tech jobs. Comcast, AT&T and Time Warner Cable are all looking to expand and grow their Internet service business.