Google Fiber keeps Raleigh, Durham on its short list

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Google Inc.

A worker stands over a boring machine used to lay fiber-optic cable that will one day route Google's ultra-high-speed Google Fiber Internet service to Austin locales. Could Raleigh be next?

Lauren K. Ohnesorge

Staff Writer- Triangle Business Journal

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Even as Frontier continues to make fiber connections in Durham, Google stays silent on its own high-speed service, Google Fiber.

A year ago, fiber was just a theoretical concept to residential customers in Raleigh and Durham.

Read: Netflix might hitch a ride via Google Fiber to Raleigh

In February, however, that all changed. That's when Google announced the Triangle had made its short list – a list of cities being considered for the service. At the time, it was the first player to announce a high-speed, residential service in Raleigh, Durham.

While other players have surfaced – think RST Fiber, which started prototyping in Wake Forest and AT&T, which has committed to bringing high-speed internet to the Triangle but hasn't released a definitive timeframe – Google has been relatively quiet since giving the Raleigh area a "maybe." Last week, Frontier Communications swooped in to finalize its own connection, starting with the American Tobacco Campus in Durham.

Read: Here's RTP's first gigabit building

"It says a lot that we're first," said Dennis Bloss, general manager of North Carolina operations for Frontier. "We're not saying maybe. We didn't want to do that. We wanted to wait until we were sure."

Read: Frontier CEO: Here's how Durham fits into our strategy

But Google won't stay silent for long, the company says.

According to spokesperson Lauren Barriere, all of Google Fiber's potential North Carolina locations are still up for consideration.

"We hope to have an update on expansion closer to the end of the year, but I don't have any additional news right now," she says.

Cities are still working through a checklist outlined by Google on May 1, she says. Part of that is working out agreements with cities for the "fiber huts," the structures to house the infrastructure. Agreements are already in place in several Triangle communities, including Cary and Carrboro.

Lauren Ohnesorge covers information technology and entrepreneurship.