Joining Kansas City, Mo./Kan., and Austin, Texas, in Google’s ultra-high-speed fiber plan, the company announced Wednesday, April 17, that Provo, Utah, will be the third city to receive the network.
“Provo City’s vision has long been one where our residents have access to reliable high-speed broadband Internet," said Mayor John Curtis in a press release. "We know that communities are better – and communities are stronger – when people are connected. With this agreement, we have an opportunity to do things that few communities in this country get to do.”
Under the terms of the agreement, which is subject to approval by the Provo City Council and other closing conditions, Google Fiber would purchase the city’s existing fiber-optic network, called iProvo, according to the release.
If the agreement is ultimately approved, according to the mayor's office, Google Fiber would commit to upgrade the iProvo network to Gigabit technology and finish network construction so that every home along the existing network would have the opportunity to connect to Google Fiber.
Google’s official blog stated that Provo was a desirable candidate to receive the Google fiber because the city is ranked second in the nation in patent growth and is consistently a top ranking city as one of the best places to live and do business in the U.S.
“We believe the future of the Internet will be built on gigabit speeds, and we’re sure the businesses and residents of Provo already have some good ideas for what they’d build with a gig,” according to the blog.
