Google Fiber skips public funding, expands gigabit internet in Colorado

The GFiber team recently broke ground for fiber-internet service that aims to cover unincorporated Douglas County (CO). “We try to put our infrastructure within the entire community and then we let people know that, hey, you’re eligible for Google Fiber service,” said Alberto Garcia, GFiber’s government and community affairs manager. “Our plan is to cover as many homes as possible.” GFiber is planning to expand in several more Denver-area communities, but also in other cities and towns around the state that want to work with the company. And that’s without public funding like the Broadband, Access, Equity and Deployment program, a $42.5 billion plan to use federal money to invest in broadband infrastructure in neglected parts of the U.S. “We believe we have the resources to have deployment to a number of areas,” Garcia said. “BEAD funding may be more applicable to some of the smaller providers who can go out and say, with this money, with this resource, we can go to these other communities.”