Google Fiber set to expand in North Carolina. Here are the latest cities and towns.
Google Fiber is expanding in North Carolina, a company official said Friday.
The high-speed internet provider is nearing right-of-way agreements to add service in Mooresville, Wilmington and Kannapolis, Jess George, head of government and community affairs for Google Fiber’s east region, told The Charlotte Observer in an exclusive interview.
Wilmington will become the first community along the North Carolina coast with the service, she said. The company did not provide details on the timing or exact locations of the expansion. But George said she anticipates “big announcements” about the plans for Mooresville, Kannapolis and Wilmington “within the next couple of months.”
“It’s a very exciting time,” George said. “We’re thrilled to be able to serve these communities.”
Earlier in the week, Google Fiber revealed that it will expand to the Union County town of Stallings and extend service to its first community in Huntersville, Hambright Junction. Google Fiber will be the sole internet provider in that neighborhood, a 300-unit, multi-family development, company officials said.
Ongoing Charlotte-area expansion
Google Fiber arrived in Charlotte in July 2016. The first neighborhood to get the gigabit high-speed internet service was Highland Creek, which is mostly north of Interstate 485, The Charlotte Observer previously reported.
The company entered the Triangle in 2015 and has since added customers in Apex, Carrboro, Cary, Chapel Hill, Durham, Garner, Morrisville, Raleigh and, most recently, Hillsborough last year.
Google Fiber also has served Concord residents since 2022.
Google Fiber has no projected start date for service in Stallings and has not decided which areas of the town will be served first, George said.
“We will now go into high-level design,” she said.
Google Fiber “huts”
To begin rolling out the service, Google Fiber first identifies where to build a fiber “hut” in a community, George said.
Huts hold all of the hardware for the Google Fiber internet network and are typically constructed near an existing cell phone tower or other transmission site, she said.
Google Fiber huts are 28 feet long and 9 feet tall, The (Raleigh) News & Observer previously reported.
“They’re the size of a trailer,” George said.
An entire construction project in a community can take two to three years to complete, George told The Charlotte Observer in March 2023 when the company first announced its Huntersville plans.
Google Fiber is already serving some customers in Huntersville, George said Friday. The company doesn’t disclose its exact number of customers in communities, she previously said.
The company, however, doesn’t “cherry-pick” neighborhoods, she said.
“Our goal is to construct our network to as many Huntersville residents as possible,” George told the Observer when Google first announced its plans.
By doing so, the company aims to “bridge the digital divide” in communities, she said Friday.
Besides offering higher internet speeds, the company also helps lower internet bills in communities by providing competition to existing providers, she said.
