If you’re lucky, your area has a fiber ISP that offers 1Gbps speeds. Some Google Fiber subscribers have an option that puts that to shame—20Gbps—but it comes at a hefty cost.Google first teased 20Gbps more than a year ago, but that was the last we heard of it until a few months ago, when more details trickled out. One key detail was still missing, though: cost. This week, Google finally revealed pricing, and 20Gbps won’t come cheap. At $250 a month, it’s anything but affordable. It’s clear that at least to start, businesses and people working from home might be the key targets here. But if you want the best and don’t mind the price (and you happen to live in the right area), you can sign up to be part of the first installations in early 2024.The newly upgraded speeds are only available in a few locations: Kansas City, North Carolina’s Triangle Region, Arizona, and Iowa. Google Fiber is already severely limited in availability, but that’s an even smaller subset.But if you think the biggest hurdle to expanding access to 20Gbps speeds is laying down new fiber lines, think again. Thanks to its reliance on Nokia’s 25G PON (passive optical network) technology, Google says it doesn’t need to install new lines. PON technology allows Google Fiber (and other ISPs) to push more bandwidth over existing fiber lines. According to Fierce Telecom, all Google needs to do to enable the new speeds is “plug in a new optical module and replace the optical network terminal on the end-user side.”Google Fiber will also provide a custom-built Wi-Fi 7 router along with that upgraded hardware. Wi-Fi 7 still isn’t fully certified, but you’ll need the custom router to take advantage of the upgraded speeds. Of course, your laptop will also need Wi-Fi 7 as well. Google says the Wi-Fi 7 router will also let you see multi-gig speeds across multiple floors in your home.
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And, like most Fiber ISPs, you’ll enjoy symmetrical speeds: 20Gbps up and down. If you upload videos and other large files frequently, that might be the most significant benefit of all. Not every Fiber ISP offers symmetrical speeds; AltaFiber, for instance (the Fiber ISP in the Cincinnati area), only gives 300Mbps upload speeds with a 6000Mbps plan.In PCMag’s survey of the Best Broadband Internet Service Providers for 2023, Google Fiber earned the top spot as the fiber-to-the-home broadband service of choice, the best in the nation. And the 20Gbps service notwithstanding, Google Fiber also has the best price per Mbps of any ISP in our results, according to the numbers provided by BroadbandNow. It also earned an incredible 9 for satisfaction in our Readers’ Choice survey.
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