High-speed Google Fiber is coming to San Francisco

Nearly six years after Google began setting up cities with some of the fastest internet in the country, Google will extend its lightning-fast gigabit fiber internet service to its neighbor to the north, San Francisco.

Google’s approach to setting up in Huntsville — a city of 180,000 — and San Francisco will be similar in that the company will use existing fiber networks in both cities to introduce its high-speed internet.

In thinking about how best to bring Google Fiber to some residents in this unique city, we considered a number of factors, including the City’s rolling hills, miles of coastline, and historic neighborhoods.

A 2015 report by the cloud-service company Akamai Technologies put average peak speeds for Internet access in California at about 58 megabits per second — the 10th fastest statewide rate in the country.

In an effort to address San Francisco’s digital divide, Google and the Nonprofit Technology Enterprise Network will also extend its Digital Inclusion Fellowship to San Francisco.

The program, aimed at increasing digital literacy and broadband adoption among low-income residents, minorities and non-English speakers would work with local community organizaitons to offer classes throughout the city that would teach people to “set up email accounts, apply for jobs, access content across the web and more,” according to Google’s announcement.