Broadband internet access is infrastructure. We may not think of it that way, but in principle, internet access is very similar to the highways and railways and leading into and out of this Valley: It allows our business, government, hospitality and entertainment to move and thrive. You’ve probably noticed by now that the roads and rails that feed Las Vegas don’t quite have the capacity needed to keep a growing city moving at speed, and the same is true of Vegas’ internet. But that’s about to change, and in a big way.
“When it comes to internet, we feel that communities have been underserved and overcharged for far too long,” says Ashley Church, general manager of Google Fiber’s western region. “GFiber is committed to helping all communities get access to internet that’s fast, reliable, fairly priced and open.”
Google Fiber, GFiber for short, is a broadband internet service subsidiary of Google’s parent company Alphabet. They offer four monthly internet plans: A $150 plan, which includes uploads and downloads up to 8 gigabits; a 5-gigabit plan for $125; a $100 2-gigabit plan; and a baseline, $70 1-gig plan whose price hasn’t increased in more than a decade. (Those prices include equipment rental, Church stresses.) GFiber was first switched on in Kansas City roughly 10 years ago, and quickly spread into multiple markets including Austin, Des Moines, Nashville, Orange County and Atlanta. San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle and many others are soon to join them.
Us, too. In August 2022, GFiber announced plans to expand into Nevada, and earlier this year, they reached agreements with Clark County and the City of Las Vegas to begin building out their service in the Valley. And the truly amazing part is, Google isn’t the only company expanding into Vegas.
“We have Google, and earlier in the year an AT&T subsidiary called Gigapower [began] installing fiber in the core areas of Las Vegas and then spreading out. They provide high-speed broadband to the residential homes,” says Michael Sherwood, chief innovation officer and director of technology for the City of Las Vegas. “There’s also another company called Teleport, which is providing business fiber communications. So, there’s already been tens of millions of dollars from these companies that are going to be invested in broadband—really bringing multiple carriers to Las Vegas, which is outstanding.”
GFiber, Gigapower and the Oakland-based Teleport will join a marketplace of residential and business internet providers in Southern Nevada that already includes Cox Communications, Lumen Technologies, CenturyLink, ISP.net (formerly LV.Net) and various others. But this flood of new broadband options will likely transform the offerings of those companies, driving them to adjust their pricing or upgrade the speed and capacity of their services.
By the end of next year, the broadband-to-highway capacity comparison will scarcely fit. The former will far outstrip the latter, transforming not only this city’s ability to draw technology-focused businesses, but the people who work for them.
“All of these investments really bring a lot of opportunity,” Sherwood says. “Remote workers are huge for the city. With remote work, you could work for Microsoft out of Seattle but live in Las Vegas. And if you don’t have the right broadband speeds, you can’t get there. So, we’re really excited that to have Google, Gigapower, companies that are [already] here like Cox, Lumen. … You know, Las Vegas is going to be one of the most highly connected cities in the United States.”
And unlike our highway problem, the cost of increasing Vegas’ broadband capacity won’t involve taxpayer money or give rise to a bumper crop of orange cones. “This is a privately financed investment,” says GFiber’s Church, adding that the buildout, once underway, should move relatively quickly thanks to a process called micro-trenching, which involves the use of a piece of equipment called a rockwheel that cuts a thin trench into asphalt streets—generally between 1 and 5 inches wide, and about 20 inches deep. A duct is laid inside, the fiber cable is pulled through it, and the channel is covered.
“It basically digs the hole, vacuums out the dirt and lays the fiber, basically all in one pass. It’s an amazing process,” Sherwood says. “They might lay a whole street or a neighborhood in a day, compared to the old way of doing it, where they had the big trench and they laid in the conduit. They don’t have to do that anymore.”
“Right now, we’re currently in the design and engineering phase of the project,” Church says. “We will begin submitting build permits with the city, water and county very soon, and upon approvals we’ll start the construction process. As that network becomes available, it will then be opened up for residents on a rolling basis ... We expect the first customers to have some of that selection sometime mid-next year.”
For now, we wait. If you’d like updates on when GFiber or Gigapower may come to your part of the Valley, you can get updates by submitting your street address at fiber.google.com/cities/clarkcounty or att.com/local/fiber/nevada/las-vegas. In the meantime, while we’re idling in construction traffic on I-15 or watching track being laid for the Brightline high-speed rail line, we can at least imagine what this Valley will be like when it’s well and truly connected to the rest of the country.
“We’re going to have the high-speed connectivity we need, [and it’s] going to play into economic opportunities as well as educational opportunities,” Sherwood says “People live where there’s great amenities. We already have some of the best sporting and entertainment venues. Now we’re going to have some of the best connectivity options available in the United States, from the biggest providers.”
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